{"id":567803,"date":"2026-07-31T00:35:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T00:35:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/567803\/"},"modified":"2026-07-31T00:35:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T00:35:13","slug":"why-the-mummys-john-hannah-originally-turned-down-his-iconic-role-twice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/567803\/","title":{"rendered":"Why The Mummy’s John Hannah originally turned down his iconic role \u2013 twice"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Mummy’s John Hannah revealed why he turned down the original film twice. Starring Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz, the 1999 action film followed adventurer Rick O’Connell and librarian Evelyn Carnahan’s travel to the City of the Dead to stop the recently awakened Imhotep, an Egyptian priest with supernatural powers. <\/p>\n

Alongside Fraser and Weisz, the cast also included Arnold Vosloo, Kevin J O’Connor, Oded Fehr, and Hannah, who portrayed Evelyn’s older brother Jonathan Carnahan. <\/p>\n

As he gets ready to reprise his role for The Mummy 4, which was announced in November 2025<\/a>, Hannah revealed on This Morning<\/a> that he’d originally turned down The Mummy twice due to him being “pretentious and serious”.<\/p>\n

\"john<\/p>\n

Ken McKay\/ITV\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

Related: Best streaming services<\/a><\/p>\n

“My reservations were I just didn’t think I could do it,” he said. <\/p>\n

“I was pretentious and serious and I wanted to work with Ken Loach and Mike Leigh and all that. They never called! Then The Mummy called, I was like, ‘No that’s a silly popcorn movie, I don’t wanna do that’. I turned it down twice.”<\/p>\n

When host Alison Hammond asked whether or not the money made him change his mind, he responded: “Yeah. I ain’t independently wealthy! Actually, on the third go-round, my agent… there’s was this other film I was maybe gonna do in Croatia, I said I’d do that. My agent said ‘No! You’re doing this!'”<\/p>\n

While at the Monte-Carlo Television Festival in June, Hannah said that he initially didn’t think The Mummy was the right choice for him, adding (via Variety<\/a>): “When I was a young actor and doing Chekhov and Shakespeare, I was pretentious, even though before I went to drama school, I read a book for the first time. <\/p>\n

“When I left school at 16, I hadn\u2019t even finished Of Mice and Men, which is only about three pages long.”<\/p>\n

\"john<\/p>\n

Universal<\/p>\n

Related: Universal responds after “unauthorised” social media link of Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey <\/a><\/p>\n

However, he said he was happy to work with director Stephen Sommers, whom he described as “a fantastically talented, wonderful human being”, and he “just follow[ed] Brendan\u2019s lead”. <\/p>\n

The Mummy 4 will see Fraser and Weisz reprise their roles as Rick and Evelyn<\/a>, and is said to be ignoring the third film, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, which featured Maria Bello in the role of Evelyn rather than Weisz. <\/p>\n

Hannah is also reprising his role as Jonathan in the film and had previously teased that “there will be some surprises”, though what those will be remains to be seen. <\/p>\n

The Mummy 4 is scheduled to hit cinemas on 15 October, 2027.<\/p>\n

Visit our Streaming Guide<\/a> now to see at a glance where you can view ALL your favourite shows and movies.<\/p>\n

The new edition of Living Legends, celebrating the global phenomenon of BTS, is here! Buy this ultimate fan guide in newsagents or online<\/a>.
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