As ambitious as the 2017 reboot of The Mummy may have seemed, its failure established 1 cold hard truth about the franchise and its potential future.
Summary
- The failure of The Mummy's 2017 reboot showed that the original cast and characters are irreplaceable, as it was their fun factor that made the original movie a hit.
- A sequel would be a better option than another reboot, as it would retain the beloved cast and characters while continuing the successful story arcs of the franchise.
- While there may still be some hope for The Mummy 4, the decline in critical ratings and box office numbers of the previous movies suggests that audiences may be experiencing franchise fatigue. Brendan Fraser's return may be the only compelling reason to watch it.
The Mummy's 2017 reboot revealed a harsh truth about its parent franchise and its potential future. Despite being a retelling of the 1932 Mummy, 1999's The Mummy breathed new life into the original horror movie franchise with its modern and relatively more comical take on the monster sub-genre. However, long before it premiered worldwide and became a hit movie franchise, its production was marred with several challenges.
For instance, the leading role in the movie was initially offered to several actors like Matt Damon, Brad Pitt, Ben Affleck, and even Tom Cruise, but none of them agreed to join the project. The role then went to Brendan Fraser, which clearly worked wonders for the film. Interestingly, Tom Cruise was the lead in The Mummy's 2017 reboot, which, despite having many factors in its favor, bombed at the box office, establishing one bitter fact about the franchise's future.
The Mummy's Reboot Proved The Original Cast & Characters Are Impossible To Replace
Many issues contributed to the failure of The Mummy's 2017 reboot. However, the primary reason the movie could not even be half as successful as the 1999 one was its cast choices and how it treated its characters. As Brendan Fraser explained in an interview (via Variety), the main ingredient that made the original movie a hit was its fun factor. While ensuring that it still offered some chills, thrills, and monstrous scares to audiences, the original movie's cast added a layer of fun, excitement, and silly humor to the film.
Tom Cruise perfectly carried his on-screen charm and effervescence in The Mummy reboot, but his characterization was a little too serious. Before The Mummy, Brendan Fraser had also created an on-screen persona himself with other comedy movies like George of the Jungle, Blast From The Past, and Encino Man, which added more heft to his image as the brave and hilarious Rick O'Connell in The Mummy. Although Tom Cruise did have star power, the movie's focus on spectacle and creating a whole cinematic universe out of its storyline failed to effectively utilize Tom Cruise's acting prowess, making his character, Nick Morton, appear paper-thin.
2017's Failed Movie Means The Mummy 4 Is Better Than Another Reboot
The reboot's failure proved that a sequel would be a better way to continue the franchise. Unlike the reboot, not only would the sequel be able to retain the cast and characters audiences grew to love but also continue the story arcs that made the franchise successful in the first place. Since reboots are supposed to take risks and reinvent their parent franchises, it is understandable why 2017's The Mummy tried dropping the comical appeal of the original film and focused more on making its monstrous mummies more terrifying. However, the campy humor and mishmash of genres that the original movie brought to the table is what gave it a unique identity.
By taking itself too seriously and killing the gung-ho approach of the original movie towards the action-adventure genre, the 2017 movie nearly destroyed all the elements that made the original so incredibly entertaining. Since The Mummy 4 would be a direct continuation of the original movie series, it could bring back all these elements, preserve the original cannons, and use nostalgia as a driving force to revive the franchise. Even from a business and marketing standpoint, Brendan Fraser would single-handedly lure audiences to the sequel, given how he is more bankable than ever after his spectacular Hollywood renaissance.
Even The Mummy 4 Feels Like A Bad Idea After 15 Years & 3 Bad Movies
Although Brendan Fraser does not mind reprising his role as Rick, it is hard not to believe that The Mummy 4 would be a terrible idea. The original 1999 The Mummy was a massive hit, and its second part, The Mummy Returns, also had impressive worldwide box office numbers. However, the subpar critical ratings and declining box office of the spin-off, The Scorpion King, and the third part, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, had already established how audiences were experiencing franchise fatigue.
In recent years, dying movie franchises like The Karate Kid, Top Gun, Rocky, and Predator have revived themselves with creative reboots and sequels, suggesting that there may still be some hope for The Mummy. However, a few success stories do not guarantee The Mummy 4's success since many other franchises like Hellboy, Planet of the Apes, and Ghostbusters have tainted their own legacies with outrageous attempts to bring back sequels and reboots that should not have existed. All in all, The Mummy 4 might give audiences a reason to watch it if it marks Brendan Fraser's return, but that would only prove that the franchise needs him more than he needs the franchise.
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