I Need The Mummy Reboot With Brendan Fraser to Completely Ignore One Sequel Idea

One of the most exciting movies headed to theaters in the foreseeable future might just be The Mummy 4. Nearly 20 years after the last film in Brendan Fraser’s The Mummy franchise, the reboot already has fans extremely hyped. Production on the movie just kicked off earlier this month with Fraser returning as Rick O’Connell and Rachel Weisz also returning as his wife, Evelyn, marking Weisz’s return to the franchise for the first time since 2001’s The Mummy Returns. With things at just the beginning stages of production, we still don’t know a lot about what to expect from the film outside a cast of familiar faces but there is one thing that fans know for certain that they don’t want when it comes to the new movie — and it’s something that not only do fans dislike about the franchise in general, but it’s one that I really need them to just ignore altogether as if it never happened at all.

While The Mummy Returns had plenty of interesting elements — and featured Dwayne Johnson in his film acting debut — there’s one thing that has long left a bad taste and that’s Evelyn’s story in the film. Specifically, the film establishes that Evelyn is actually the reincarnation of Egyptian princess Nefertiri. Now, the idea of past lives and resurrection isn’t the issue here. It’s actually an element that when done right makes for a cool story in a film franchise like The Mummy. The issue here is that it’s just a weird storyline considering that a huge part of the first film involves Evelyn being connected to Imhotep’s love, Anck-su-namun, something that makes the Neferteri plot confusing.

The Mummy Dealt With Evelyn Having a Connection to a Dead Figure Already So the Sequel Didn’t Need To

One of the central elements of The Mummy is that Evelyn is captured by a resurrected Imhotep who wants to use her as a sacrifice to resurrect Anck-su-namun, his lover from ancient times who had sacrificed herself to give Imhotep the time to escape the Medjai. Obviously, Rick and his allies prevail. Evelyn is saved, Imhotep is made mortal and killed by Rick, and all’s well that ends well. Except when we get to The Mummy Returns, we get Evelyn at the center of another resurrection story. This time, she’s kidnapped by a cult who brings Imhotep back. However, Anck-su-namun is also back, with a woman named Meela Nais who is a part of the cult the physical reincarnation of Anck-su-namun. The plan is, once again, to sacrifice Evelyn. Once again Evelyn is rescued, but when a spell is used to bring Anck-su-namun into Meela’s body, something unexpected happens and Evelyn’s memories of her past life as Princess Nefertiri are unlocked.

If that general synopsis is confusing, you’re right. It is confusing. It’s a choice that makes Evelyn more tied into the ancient beef between the Pharoah and Imhotep that started pretty much the entire The Mummy story, but it’s other details that make things even more nonsensical and frankly weakens the movie. The big one is that The Mummy Returns goes out of its way to establish that Evelyn looks like Nefertiri. It’s also established that Anck-su-namun and Nefertiri were rivals in life and yet… no one seems to recognize Evelyn as Nefertiri at any point in the first film when it would make sense for Imhotep to absolutely know who she was. It just feels like a weird gap in the story that we don’t need.

The Mummy Reboot Will Work Better If It Just Ignores the Past Life Stuff

Realistically, The Mummy Reboot has an opportunity to deal with what many fans feel like is a plot hole or just a poorly executed plot point by streamlining it or cleaning it up, but honestly it should just skip it altogether. While the film doesn’t need to retcon the story — and it might actually be too challenging to actually pull that off — it’s something that simply doesn’t need to be brought up. The Mummy Reboot will best work if the characters are given a new adventure to take on rather than dwell in the past, literally. Given the amount of time that has passed from the last The Mummy film to now, a fresh new adventure makes sense. And it’s something that can be done while still preserving the original characters and their story, just not going back over it. We already know that Arnold Vosloo is returning as Imhotep and while he was resurrected and then ended up cast into the underworld at the end of The Mummy Returns, there are ways to bring him back that do not necessarily require Evelyn’s weird past life situation to be revisited.

Skipping the Nefertiri resurrection and reincarnation plot also would just let The Mummy get back to basics. The first film was a huge success because, at its core, it was just a fun, action adventure that felt surprisingly grounded even with its mythology. It’s those roots that the franchise needs to get back to. Give us adventure, give us action, and give us all of the chaos and fun that brings with us. We don’t need weird ancient relationship dynamics and a contrived past life story this time around.

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