Why Rachel Weisz Didnt Return for The Mummy 3

Why Rachel Weisz Didn’t Return for The Mummy 3

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Actress Rachel Weisz didn’t return to play adventurer Rick O’Connell’s equally capable wife Evie in The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor.

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Why Rachel Weisz Didnt Return for The Mummy 3

Actress Rachel Weisz didn’t return to play adventurer Rick O’Connell’s equally capable wife Evie in 2008’s The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. That came as a big surprise to many people at the time since playing Evie in The Mummy and The Mummy Returns is what launched Weisz’s career from mostly unknown into the Hollywood A-list. She’s since gone on to win an Oscar, a Golden Globe, and a BAFTA for her work, and become one of the most recognizable actresses around.

It’s not that Rachel Weisz had become averse to starring in popcorn blockbusters either: her career since leaving The Mummy behind has seen a healthy mix of mainstream projects and prestige dramas. In 2021 she joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe in Black Widow. Weisz plays Melina Vostakoff, another graduate of the Black Widow Red Room spy training facility, and a surrogate mother figure to titular hero Natasha Romanoff.

Over the years, several different stories have circulated as to why Rachel Weisz opted not to reprise her role for The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. The part of Evie was ultimately taken over by Maria Bello. Here’s a look at the reasons for Weisz leaving the series, including what Weisz herself has said on the matter.

What The Mummy 3 Director Said About The Recast

Why Rachel Weisz Didnt Return for The Mummy 3

One explanation [via Digital Spy] for Rachel Weisz’s exit from the Evie role in The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor was given by the sequel’s director, Rob Cohen. It wasn’t very flattering, as Cohen suggested Weisz balked at the idea of playing a character with an adult son, as Evie and Rick’s son was being aged up for the film. It was also reported at the time [via Cinema Blend] that the reason for Weisz’s departure from The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor was due to problems with the script. Apparently, Weisz felt it did a disservice to the Evie character, making her not want to return to the role. Universal denied these reports at the time, but Weisz kept silent.

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What Rachel Weisz Said About Not Returning For The Mummy 3

Why Rachel Weisz Didnt Return for The Mummy 3

A representative of Rachel Weisz told Digital Spy that she stepped away from The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor as she had a newborn son, and didn’t want to be away from him for an extended period to shoot the next movie in The Mummy franchise. However, she starred in two other films around the same time, which casts a bit of doubt on that theory. While it sometimes gets overlooked in hindsight, Weisz herself offered a more mundane explanation than any of the above reasons for her lack of participation in The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. The U.K.-based ES Magazine had an interview with her in the Nov. 16 issue back in 2008. In it, Weisz said that she had never even read the script, and that the scheduling of its production is what put her off the project. Shooting the movie would’ve entailed spending five months in China, and required her to immediately begin filming right after production wrapped on director Rian Johnson’s The Brothers Bloom. Of all the possible explanations for her not to return, scheduling conflicts would seem to be the most likely.

Why Alex Was Recast For The Mummy 3

Why Rachel Weisz Didnt Return for The Mummy 3

Rachel Weisz wasn’t the only actor not to return for The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, as Evie and Rick O’Connell’s son Alex, was also recast. In The Mummy Returns, Alex is a precocious eight-year-old in 1933, but The Mummy 3 jumps forward in time thirteen years to 1946, making Alex twenty-one years old. The rationale for the time jump was to set the film in a post-World War II China, with Jet Li’s Mummy Emperor resurrected by the villains to lead China out of the chaos. An additional reason was to make Alex O’Connell into a fully blown adventurer/explorer like his mother and father, in the vein of Indiana Jones. Freddie Boath played Alex in The Mummy Returns, but with there being only a seven-year gap in reality between the movies, he was too young to return. Alex was therefore recast, with the role going to Australian actor Luke Ford.

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Will Rachel Weisz Return In The Mummy 4?

If Rachel Weisz didn’t return for The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor due to concerns over its quality, they proved prophetic, as the film received scathing reviews upon release. While the criticism was divided equally onto all aspects of the film, a lot was targeted on the recasting of Evie, and fans lamented Weisz’s absence. While Maria Bello is an accomplished actress, here the relationship and chemistry with lead star Brendan Fraser is a shadow of what Weisz brought to the role. It was also the lowest-grossing movie in the trilogy (but still managed $400 million worldwide).

Universal Studios was considering continuing the franchise with The Mummy 4. Tentatively titled The Mummy: Rise of the Aztec, the movie would have seen The O’Connell family travel to South America to battle Antonio Banderas’s villain. Luke Ford stated back in 2008 [via Bloody Disgusting] that he was signed on for three Mummy movies, potentially being groomed to become the new Lead for the series. Maria Bello was also contracted to return as Evie, meaning Rachel Weisz would not have returned for The Mummy 4 regardless. Universal ultimately decided to cancel development on The Mummy 4, and reboot the series in an attempt at a shared monster universe. Tom Cruise’s The Mummy was supposed to kick the Dark Universe off, however, when it bombed in the summer of 2017 the franchise once again stalled.

While Rachel Weisz has seemingly left the character of Evie behind, the current craze in Hollywood is the legacy sequel, with franchises being revisited decades later. When The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor was released in 2008 it would have seemed fanciful to think that movie fans would have Han Solo, the original Ghostbusters, or Michel Keaton’s Batman back on the big screen. Despite suffering numerous injuries shooting the Mummy movies, Brendan Fraser has confirmed he’d happily return as Rick O’Connell. Combined with Brendan Fraser’s impending renaissance, there is therefore always the chance that Universal could choose to resurrect The Mummy franchise once again with Rachel Weisz back as Evie.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/mummy-tomb-dragon-emperor-movie-rachel-weisz-no-return-why/

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