25 Years Ago, A Forgotten Piece of Brendan Fraser’s Best Franchise Premiered, But Replaced the Entire Cast

Brendan Fraser’s The Mummy was a pretty big hit in 1999. For a time, Brendan was enjoying a major run of Hollywood success. And who didn’t love watching Rick O’Connell get himself into trouble with ancient curses and things that probably should have stayed buried? The movie was fun, Fraser was great in the role, and the sequel arrived in 2001. Naturally, Hollywood wanted to do more with the franchise. That’s usually what happens when a studio makes a lot of money from a film. As a matter of fact, The Mummy 4 might be on it’s way.

On September 29, 2001, The Mummy got another outing, but this time, it wasn’t on the big screen. And this incarnation is not something that comes up much when people talk about Fraser’s movies today. And plenty of movie fans have probably forgotten it existed—let alone were even aware of it in the first place. There’s a reason it tends to get overlooked, too. This wasn’t another adventure with the cast audiences already knew. The franchise was trying something different, and the results were a little unexpected.

The Mummy: The Animated Series Replaced the Movie Cast

On September 29, 2001, The Mummy: The Animated Series premiered on Kids’ WB. It took the franchise into animation just months after The Mummy Returns arrived in theaters. Rather than simply retelling the movies, the series continued the O’Connell family’s adventures. Rick and Evelyn’s son Alex was now older and dealing with supernatural adventures of his own. The story revolved around a magical Manacle of Osiris attached to Alex’s wrist, sending him and his family on a hunt for the Lost Scrolls of Thebes while the resurrected Imhotep pursued them. Basically, being a member of the O’Connell family remained a pretty terrible career choice if your goal was a quiet life.

The biggest change, of course, was behind the microphone. John Schneider took over as Rick O’Connell, Grey DeLisle voiced Evelyn, Chris Marquette played Alex, and Tom Kenny stepped into Jonathan’s shoes. Jim Cummings voiced Imhotep, giving the series a familiar villain with a new sound. Fraser, Weisz, and Hannah were nowhere to be heard. That’s understandable for an animated spin-off, but it still makes for an interesting bit of franchise history. The movies had benefited from the chemistry between Fraser’s wisecracking adventurer, Weisz’s sharp-witted Evelyn, and Hannah’s delightfully unreliable Jonathan. Recasting all three meant the animated series had to establish its own identity rather than simply borrow the magic of the movies.

How The Mummy Expanded Beyond Brendan Fraser’s Movies

The animated series had a decent amount of room to play with the franchise’s supernatural adventure formula. With Alex at the center of the story, the show could lean into a younger hero facing dangers that his parents already knew all too well. Ancient artifacts, mysterious locations, and Imhotep’s continued pursuit gave the writers plenty of opportunities to send the family into trouble. And because it was animation, the series could explore these adventures without being restricted by the same practical demands as a live-action production. The movies had already established that the world of The Mummy could accommodate enormous creatures and elaborate supernatural threats. Saturday morning television offered another way to keep that world going.

The show lasted beyond its initial run, eventually returning for a second season under the title The Mummy: Secrets of the Medjai. Across its two seasons, it produced 26 episodes before ending in 2003. It never became as widely remembered as Fraser’s movies, which isn’t particularly surprising when you consider how much the original cast contributed to their appeal. Still, the series represents an interesting moment when studios were eager to turn successful films into ongoing television properties. For fans who wanted more adventures between theatrical releases, it offered another way to revisit the franchise. And while plenty of viewers probably remember Fraser swinging a weapon at something that should have stayed buried, fewer may remember that Rick O’Connell continued his adventures on Saturday mornings, with a different voice and an animated family in tow.

Looking back, the cartoon series did a fine job expanding the world based around The Mummy. The animation has the type of American style that feels like an a mashup of classic Saturday morning cartoons and a comic book. It’s still definitely worth checking out for fans of the archaeology and artifacts adventure genre. The transition from movie to cartoon was a lot smoother than a certain R-rated movie that made for a fun Saturday morning cartoon. And that’s the legend of the O’Connell family and their pulp-ish adventures. Did you watch The Mummy cartoon? Let us know what you think of it or if you plan to start watching it. After all, the O’Connell family’s adventures may be over, but some legends are simply too good to stay buried.