Brendan Fraser's return for a potential fourth The Mummy installment would repair the worst parts of The Mummy trilogy's legacy. Fraser's relevant cinematic comeback in recent times has boosted anticipation for any news about The Mummy 4. Although not much pertaining to a fourth installment has come to pass, The Mummy 4 would still fix a lot about what went wrong within the franchise, particularly in The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, and perhaps reinvigorate Brendan Fraser's classic trilogy.
Fraser, who famously played The Mummy protagonist slash hero-adventurer Rick O'Connell, has indicated that he would reprise the role under the right circumstances (via Variety). His sentiment is promising given that the once beloved actor's comeback has been critically received and the high demand to continue The Mummy narrative. Unquestionably, the right circumstances for the making of The Mummy 4 is an engaging enough storyline that not only caters to the satisfaction of Fraser as a freshly reintroduced actor but to longtime fans that want The Mummy 4 done right.
With such a huge gap in time since the last chapter, 2008's The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, The Mummy 4 could feasibly avoid mistakes in the direction of its overarching storyline. Audiences may recall that the classic The Mummy formula - an affable adventurer implored to vanquish an undead ruler all while wooing his love interest - had worn thin and didn't go over as well in the third film, causing it to become an unfortunate flop. Seeing as enough time has passed to forget the overdone mistakes of the franchise and begin anew, The Mummy 4 could essentially capitalize off of avoiding the same recycled storyline problems.
In fact, The Mummy 4 would have to explain the passage of time, the circumstances of Rick O'Connell's return to adventuring, and what happened to the original The Mummy gang in the interim. Besides the fact that this type of storyline would be relatively new to The Mummy franchise, The Mummy 4 following in this direction would be conducive to its success. A perfect mix of nostalgia and an explanation to where the well-missed cast of characters ended up could restore the hype behind the ingenuity of the original The Mummy and the aspects that worked well throughout the rest of the franchise.
Related: Why The Mummy Has Aged Better Than Its Sequel Movies
Capitalizing off of the passing of time has benefited other franchise sequels, such as Bad Boys For Life, Rambo: Last Blood, and Top Gun: Maverick, and could also ensure that The Mummy 4 will prosper as well. Top Gun: Maverick is the more recent case in point. Decades later in real time and more than 30 years after completing the Top Gun program, the basis for which the Top Gun film champions, Captain Pete Mitchell (Tom Cruise) returned to the big screen to train pilot graduates for a special mission.
Top Gun: Maverick was a smash success, as the other time gap sequels were in their own right, and was that way in part for bringing back the sentimentality and utilizing the elements of the story that worked in the original movie. The epic blockbuster called back to its predecessor with a persuasive soundtrack and action packed aerial scenes simultaneously as the time gap informed Maverick's narrative and unpacked the accounts of Top Gun's supporting characters. The Mummy 4 could take a step away from its own repeated formula and venture into the time gap blueprint that made Top Gun: Maverick so popular.
Tom Cruise may have reinvigorated the Top Gun franchise, but that wasn't the case in the reception of 2017's The Mummy reboot. Cruise starred as The Mummy's protagonist and mercenary Nick Morton - and although Cruise had major star appeal for the reboot of the classic trilogy, the newest The Mummy was disastrous enough to generate the fall of Universal Pictures' Dark Universe enterprise. Universal had planned to unload a series of monster movies that took place in a shared universe, but the plan was quickly scrapped after the 2017 movie's failure at the box office.
Cruise's The Mummy wasn't representative of the time gap initiative that made Top Gun work. 2017's The Mummy largely ignored the storyline found in The Mummy trilogy (or the 1932 classic of the same name), had no familiar characters, and lacked the enchanting idiosyncrasies that made Fraser's films so great. Now that Brendan Fraser is back on the scene and the potential for a fourth The Mummy installment exists, The Mummy saga has a much larger chance at becoming properly reinvigorated and fix the repetitive story problem that condemned the franchise.