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Trivia: Despite the film's negative reception, star Brendan Fraser has lightly defended it in interviews. In a 2025 interview, he stated that while it wasn't a good "Mummy" movie, he thought it was a decent stand-alone adventure movie and said that the experience of making it and working in China was fantastic. (Though he promised the announced fourth film would be the movie that both he and the fans "have been wanting," hinting at a return to the tone and Egyptian mythology of the first two movies.)

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Trivia: In a 2025 interview, star Brendan Fraser stated that the main reason for the scenery change from Egypt to China was business-related. NBC Universal wanted to do cross-promotion with the 2008 Olympics, which were being held in China, and asked for the film to be based around Chinese mythology.

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Trivia: After the release of this film, Brendan Fraser repeatedly floated the idea of a fourth film, often saying in interviews that he'd love to play Rick O'Connell again. However, the series was rebooted in 2017 instead, apparently dashing all hopes. However, in late 2025, it was revealed that a fourth film was greenlit with Fraser and original co-star Rachel Weisz (who sat this film out) both set to return.

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Trivia: Supposedly, one early draft of the script had Rick and Evie resurrecting Imhotep from the first two films as a begrudging ally to help them defeat the Dragon Emperor. Imhotep actor Arnold Vosloo wasn't keen on this idea, and opted out. He was also good friends with Stephen Sommers, who directed the first two films, and didn't want to do a "Mummy" movie without him at the helm. (Sommers produced this film but stepped away from the director's seat).

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Trivia: A fun little tid-bit about how an effect was achieved. According to one of the effects artists, when the Emperor is dying, you see parts of his face sort of bubbling and melting and turning black. Especially his cheeks. Evidently, this is actually digitally manipulated footage of sheets of processed cheese being melted and burned, which was then color-corrected and 3D mapped onto Jet Li's face. I guess you could say this movie kinda takes the term "cheesy" to a whole 'nother level.

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Trivia: The scenes in the snowy mountains were actually filmed on an incredibly hot soundstage. Everyone was profusely sweating at all times under the hot stage lights. It reportedly was so hot that whenever she could, Maria Bello would wear literally nothing beneath her coat except a bra.

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Trivia: At one point in time, Rick was going to be killed off to make his son Alex the new star of the series, but this was (thankfully) changed early on in the writing process.

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Trivia: Director Rob Cohen and his wife are among the couples dancing in the final scene. They're the bald man with a gray goatee and the taller brunette woman in the dark blue dress with white gloves. They're most easily visible to the left of Alex and Lin when they have their brief dialogue exchange.

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Trivia: All of the booby-traps during the sequence in which Alex goes into the tomb were loosely based on real contraptions and booby-traps found in ancient Chinese tombs.

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Trivia: Despite playing their fully-grown son, Luke Ford was only thirteen years younger than Brendan Fraser and fourteen years younger than Maria Bello.

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Trivia: At one point in time, the character Ardeth Bay was supposed to be in the film. Actor Oded Fehr declined the opportunity to return, feeling that it made no sense for him to appear if the villain wasn't Imhotep from the previous two films. He was then written out of the script.

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Trivia: A fourth film in the series, under the working title "The Mummy: Rise of the Aztec," was rumored for a number of years after the release of this third film due to its financial success. Brendan Fraser, Luke Ford, John Hannah and Maria Bello were reportedly all contracted for the film, while Antonio Banderas had been approached for the part of the villain. After significant progress had failed to be made by 2012, the film was quietly cancelled, and the series was eventually rebooted in 2017.

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