The Mummy 4 Just Confirmed The Villain Fans Wanted Has Rejoined the Cast, But We Have Questions
When a brand-new sequel to the 1999 cult classic movie The Mummy, The Mummy 4, was announced, fans of the original film were thrilled, but it didn’t take long for questions about the cast to begin circulating. Thus far, some thrilling casting announcements have been revealed, including the returns of fan-favorite stars Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz, who play Rick O’Connell and Evelyn, respectively.
More recently, it was confirmed that Oded Fehr and Kevin J. O’Connor will also be returning to the franchise, reprising their roles as Ardeth Bay and Beni Gabor. However, fans remained anxious to learn whether Arnold Vosloo would be appearing as the villain Imhotep, particularly considering the character’s previous death. As was revealed by returning Mummy star John Hannah at the Monte-Carlo Television Festival 2026, though, Vosloo will indeed be returning in the upcoming sequel—we just don’t know how.
How Is Imhotep Returning in The Mummy?
It might seem a bit counterintuitive to question how a character could be returning from the dead in a movie that is literally titled The Mummy, which by its very nature suggests that someone is rising from the dead. However, there is a legitimate reason why fans of the film (as happy as they are) are surprised by this news. Namely, in the original movie, Imhotep’s death—notably, his mortal death—is a major factor in the story, as is his subsequent demise in the sequel, The Mummy Returns. In The Mummy, the film’s protagonists come together to make Imhotep mortal through the Book of Amun-Ra, and he is then stabbed to death by Rick.
In The Mummy Returns, he has been resurrected by a cult. In the end, though, he falls into the Underworld, which is a seemingly permanent end. Given this history, The Mummy 4 is certainly going to have some explaining to do when it comes to the (apparent) resurrection of this character. Even so, Imhotep won’t be alone in terms of returning characters who technically shouldn’t be able to appear in the movie. Specifically, O’Connor’s character Beni also died in The Mummy, and based on casting reports, he, too, is in the movie. With next to nothing currently known about the sequel’s story, it’s possible that these returns could be linked, although that remains to be seen.
In the meantime, though, fans of the Mummy franchise don’t seem all that troubled by these quandaries. Rather, posts about the return of Vosloo as Imhotep are full of comments celebrating the news. Under one such X post, one comment reads, “I don’t really care if the movie is good at this point. Just happy they will all be back.” Another says, “I don’t care how, I’ll take it. Find it cool the band is getting back together.” Yet another commenter jokes, “This is probably one of the few franchises where they can keep bringing people back from the dead lol” (and they’re not wrong). Thankfully, fans won’t have too much longer to wait to find out how exactly these characters have returned, as The Mummy 4 is currently slated for October 15, 2027.
