First Look at Brendan Fraser in The Mummy 4 Teases Rick O’Connell’s New Job

After a false start, audiences are getting their first look at Brendan Fraser as he returns to film The Mummy 4. One of the joys of being an actor is getting to live dozens of lives and try plenty of professions, but still go home to your normal life at the end of the day. Throughout his acting career, Brendan Fraser has portrayed a caveman, multiple misunderstood students, teachers, a pro baseball player, and even a Canadian Mountie. In the Mummy movies alone, he’s been a member of the French Foreign Legion, a professional adventurer, a treasure hunter, and a husband to an eccentric Egyptologist. Somewhere along the way, Rick O’Connell developed a taste for speed, because his new job moves pretty fast and even has a company car.

New photos from the set of The Mummy 4, published by Page Six, show Fraser back in the saddle as Rick O’Connell. And by back in the saddle, we mean behind a steering wheel. The first look at Fraser in the film ditches the horses for horsepower in the form of what reports are referring to as a rocket car. In the shots, we can see O’Connell Racing Team members gathered around as Fraser gets out of the vehicle. Outfitted in a shearling-lined aviator-style jacket and a helmet, O’Connell cuts a fine figure in a look that’s defined adventurers for decades. The car he’s driving, however, is completely in its own time. The silver “rocket car” looks straight out of a comic book and perfectly establishes the technological gold rush that was happening in the post-war ’50s. Pardon us while we push up our glasses to observe that, technically, since we can see air intakes on the side of the car, this is most likely a jet-propelled vehicle, not a rocket.

Evelyn Always Wins

O’Connell Racing’s prototype jetmobile isn’t the first sign that our favorite mummy-chasing couple is in a new age. Initial set photos of Rachel Weisz as Evelyn O’Connell have her using a communication device that appears to be just a bit ahead of its time. While there have been no sources asserting so, it wouldn’t be a surprise if Evie’s brother Jonathan, played by John Hannah, has become a serial investor in gadgets and technology based on his moneymaking schemes in the original films. It’s kind of surprising that amongst all of the O’Connells, Evie isn’t the race car driver. She’s the only character we’ve seen win a race.

One of the myriad reasons people love The Mummy so much isn’t because we’re madly in love with Rick and Evie from the minute it starts. Okay, not just because we’re in love with them from the minute it starts. They love it because the adventure film manages to give both actors genuine character moments that pull us into love with them. One of those moments was Evelyn and her camel kicking ass in the race to Hamunaptra. Rick and Beni’s Americans had wagered whose team would win the race to the city of the dead. Evie getting there first on the back of a camel proves to be a charming moment for both Rick and the audience to fall for Rachel Weisz’s reckless librarian a little bit more. Perhaps after losing to her, he decided to focus on wheels over hooves. Either way, Evelyn will always win the race, because that’s the name emblazoned on the side of the car. Based on his experience, they definitely couldn’t make him a pilot.

We’ve only seen two sets of leaked photos from The Mummy 4, and we’re already getting a sense of a graduated adventure. Unlike previous adventures, Evie and Rick are both playing with toys that evoke that they live and work on the edge of modernity. To contend with Imhotep in the atomic age sets up a great standoff between the scientific and the supernatural. The photos also show Rick and Evie looking damn good. Either way, it’s a win.

The Mummy 4 is set to release on October 15th, 2027.

Other than Rick O’Connell, what was your favorite Brendan Fraser performance? Let us know in the comments below.