Rachel Weisz didn’t return as Evelyn in The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (the third Mummy movie) because of a mix of reported reasons, and there is no single, fully confirmed “official” story.

Quick Scoop

Most commonly cited explanations include:

  • Scheduling conflicts and location issues (a long shoot in China right after another film).
  • Wanting to stay close to her very young child at the time.
  • Disliking or being unhappy with the script and how it treated Evie.
  • Claims from the director that she didn’t want to play a character with an adult son / thought the character felt “too old” (this has never been confirmed by Weisz herself).

Because of this, the studio recast Evelyn with Maria Bello instead.

What the Director and Studio Side Said

Several interviews and reports from around the film’s release painted this picture:

  • Director Rob Cohen suggested Rachel Weisz turned it down because she didn’t want to play the mother of a 21‑year‑old, implying she felt the character had become “too old.”
  • Trade and fan sites also repeated that she wasn’t happy with the script or direction of the character.
  • The studio line that stuck publicly was often “scheduling conflicts” and the difficulty of fitting a long China shoot into her calendar.

These accounts lean more toward creative/image concerns plus logistics, but they are second‑hand and sometimes contradict each other.

What Rachel Weisz’s Side Has Indicated

On the Rachel Weisz side, things are a bit more low‑key:

  • A representative said she didn’t want to be away from her two‑year‑old son for a five‑month shoot in China.
  • In a 2008 interview, she reportedly said she never even read the script and that the timing and length of the shoot (straight from wrapping The Brothers Bloom into five months in China) turned her off the project.

Noticeably, she hasn’t done a big tell‑all about “why I left The Mummy 3 ,” which keeps the door open to speculation.

Fan and Forum Discussion Angle

Over the years, fan forums and entertainment sites have circled around three main theories:

  1. Family and schedule first – She prioritized her child and didn’t want to relocate for months.
  1. Script and character quality – She supposedly didn’t like the script or how Evie was written, feeling it wasn’t worthy of the character.
  1. Age/image concerns – The “too old to have an adult son” angle pushed by the director, which many fans view skeptically because it isn’t confirmed by her.

In forum chatter, people often say it was “probably a mix” of a bad script plus life priorities, with the age claim treated more like gossip than fact.

So What’s the Most Likely Reason?

Putting the various pieces together:

  • She had a young child, a packed schedule, and a long, overseas shoot on the table.
  • There were credible reports of script issues and a weaker treatment of Evie.
  • The age/“too old” narrative comes mainly from the director and secondary reports, not from Weisz herself.

The safest, most grounded answer is: a combination of scheduling and personal-life constraints plus dissatisfaction with the project’s script and direction , rather than one single dramatic incident.

TL;DR: Rachel Weisz skipped The Mummy 3 due to a blend of timing issues, not wanting to spend months away from her young child, and reported concerns about the script and direction of Evie—while the “too old” story is more rumor than confirmed fact.

Bottom note: Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.