'The Mummy' Box Office, Cast News: Brendan Fraser's Absence Seen as a Good Thing as Tom Cruise Starrer Flops
Moviegoers of the last decade associate "The Mummy" with Brendan Fraser, who starred in the original trilogy that ran in theaters in 1999, 2001 and 2008. Tom Cruise now leads the reboot that's currently getting slammed by critics and the movie is also struggling at the box office against "Wonder Woman."
Fraser's fans reportedly see the actor's absence in "The Mummy" reboot as a good thing given all the feedback and bad performance at the box office. They have rallied behind the actor with a #BetterWithBrendan campaign on social media.
"The Mummy" reboot with Tom Cruise, however, didn't really need Fraser's appearance. Director Alex Kurtzman said in an interview with Entertainment Tonight that the new film is from an entirely different time period from the ones Fraser did before. So, it did not make sense for them to ask the actor back.
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Fraser played the adventurer Rick O'Connell from the 1930s and 1940s in the first "The Mummy" trilogy. Meanwhile, Cruise is Nick Morton, who is a present-day former military man in the new film.
"The Mummy" reboot with Cruise is supposed to be the initial offering of a Dark Universe that Universal Studios planned to create. "The Dark Universe is a continuation of a love affair the studio has had with its classic monsters. It is a Valentine to the genre that is in our DNA," Nick Carpou, Universal's distribution executive, said. But with its box office result, observers now wonder if the studio should still continue with doing the next installments.
Meanwhile, Fraser, who slowed down with work after "The Mummy," is seeing a career reboot himself. Following his appearance on Showtime's "The Affair" last season, the actor will soon star in his own series.
Fraser joined the cast of "Trust" on FX. He will be working with Donald Sutherland and Hilary Swank on a story about John Paul Getty III. Fraser is also in the Skydance series "Condor" with Max Irons and Mira Sorvino. Watch Fraser's reaction to Cruise's film in the video below.
