Imhotep is rising again. Arnold Vosloo has confirmed he will return as the villain in The Mummy: Book of the Dead, the fourth film in the Brendan Fraser-led franchise, during an appearance on author Jack Carr's Danger Close podcast, JoBlo reported.
"I just signed my deal. We are doing another 'Mummy,'" Vosloo said. He also teased how the high priest comes back: "Somebody wakes me up…they read from the Book of the Dead." Universal had not confirmed his casting at the time of the report.
A direct sequel to the 1999 original
Directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, the filmmaking duo known as Radio Silence, The Mummy: Book of the Dead is set to open Oct. 15, 2027. The film treats only 1999's The Mummy and 2001's The Mummy Returns as canon and skips 2008's The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, which replaced Rachel Weisz with Maria Bello.
Fraser and Weisz have closed deals to return as Rick and Evelyn O'Connell, and fans have campaigned online for Vosloo to join them since the sequel was announced. Now he has.
Vosloo said Fraser and the cast were already shooting in London and that he planned to travel there in November. He also said the production plans to make him look younger on screen: "They're gonna make me look like I did when I was 38 years old."
The title itself points straight back to the 1999 film, in which reading from the Book of the Dead is what wakes Imhotep in the first place. More than 25 years later, the same book is bringing him back.
