Sit down, Tom Cruise. Brendan Fraser will show you how it’s really done.
The Hollywood Reporter and Deadline confirmed that the Oscar-winning actor will reunite with Rachel Weisz for a brand-new The Mummy movie, marking their first time back together in the franchise since 2001’s The Mummy Returns.
The sequel will arrive 17 years after the last installment, Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, and 25 years since Weisz last appeared as Evelyn O’Connell. Tom Cruise appeared in a reboot in 2017, though it didn’t perform as well as the cult classics.
But while fans are thrilled for their return, Fraser’s comeback also stirs memories of the terrifying near-fatal accident he suffered while filming the original 1999 film. Speaking on The Kelly Clarkson Show in 2023, Fraser revealed he “almost died” while shooting a scene in which his character, Rick O’Connell, is hanged.
“The camera swooped around and I went on the toes and the guy holding the rope above me, he pulled it up a little higher and I was stuck up on my toes, I had nowhere to go but down,” he recalled. “The next thing I knew my elbow was in my ear, the world was sideways, there was gravel in my teeth, and everyone was really quiet.”
Fraser also revealed on The Late Show with David Letterman in 1999 that a doctor said he had been “technically dead” for about “12 or 14 seconds.” Despite the brush with death, he pushed on through multiple injuries and surgeries over the years.
By the time he filmed The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, Fraser said he was “putting myself together like a gladiator with muscle tape and ice packs.”
The toll eventually led him to step away from Hollywood for nearly a decade.
