Six months ago, Michael Johnston was best known to genre fans as a “Teen Wolf” alum with nearly fifteen years of steady, unglamorous work behind him. Then “Obsession” happened. Now Johnston is reportedly in early talks to join Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz in “The Mummy 4,” according to Variety.
Johnston broke out earlier this year playing Bear, the lead in Curry Barker’s low-budget horror film “Obsession,” which has since become the highest-grossing movie ever made for under $1 million, pulling in more than $450 million worldwide, according to ComingSoon.net. That kind of return has reportedly put him on casting shortlists across the industry, ComingSoon.net noted, with Universal’s Mummy sequel emerging as the first major deal to result from it.
If it closes, Johnston would join a franchise nearly three decades in the making. Fraser returns as adventurer Rick O’Connell and Weisz as Evelyn Carnahan, alongside John Hannah reprising his role as Jonathan Carnahan, according to ScreenRant, which also reported that Arnold Vosloo and Kevin J. O’Connor are expected back as Imhotep and Beni Gabor, respectively.
A New Creative Team, Old Faces
Directing duties fall to Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, the filmmaking pair behind “Ready or Not” and the recent “Scream” sequels, working from a script by David Coggeshall. Plot details are being kept tightly under wraps, but the sequel is expected to move past the events of 2008’s “The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor,” which didn’t include Weisz’s character at all, according to Bloody Disgusting. Gillett offered a brief tease of the tone he’s going for, describing the film as “beautiful and scary and sweeping,” per Bloody Disgusting.
Producer Sean Daniel, who has worked on every Mummy film since the original in 1999, returns alongside William Sherak, James Vanderbilt, Paul Neinstein, and Clayton Townsend, with Fraser himself signed on as an executive producer, according to Variety.
Fraser’s Long Wait
For Fraser, the project carries some personal weight. He recently told the Associated Press that this is finally the Mummy movie he’s wanted to make for two decades, referencing lingering frustration with how the underperforming third film turned out, according to AOL.
Universal has dated “The Mummy 4” for October 15, 2027, with production expected to begin sometime this fall, according to World of Reel, though World of Reel cautioned that Johnston’s deal isn’t finalized and that Universal declined to comment on the casting talks. The original 1999 film and its 2001 sequel together grossed more than $800 million worldwide, part of a franchise that’s brought in roughly $1.8 billion across its run — a track record the new creative team, whose credits include “Abigail” and the “Scream” franchise, according to Empire, is now tasked with living up to.
