Good news and bad news for The Mummy 3 then... The good news is that Brendan Fraser has agreed a deal to return to the adventure franchise but unfortunately Rachel Weisz won't be returning. It's said that Fraser will earn a huge paycheck for reprising his role as Rick O'Connell. I actually think that the return of Fraser is far more important than Weisz. He is the clear lead of the movies, when you think of The Mummy... it's his character that comes to mind. It's certainly disappointing that Weiz won't be returning and replacing her in the role won't be easy but it could have been worse. And I guess replace her they must, because her character is bound to be written in the script... especially when they are going with the storyline of having Weisz and Fraser's character's son in the movie. Unless they can manage to write her out of the script, maybe they could go with the storyline that she's dead, but it may just be easier to replace her. It's not really much of a surprise Weisz isn't returning. She's a much bigger star now than she was 6 years ago when the last movie came out. She has since won an Oscar and according to IMDB she has 7 movie roles upcoming in the next two to three years. Even if she wanted to return, chances are she wouldn't be able to fit it in anyway. Unfortunately Rob Cohen is still attached to direct, with Jet Li and his Martial Arts Mummies as the main villains. source - variety