In February 1999, Bayley left the band by mutual consent. At the same time, the band surprised their fans when they announced that both Bruce Dickinson and guitarist Adrian Smith were rejoining the band, and that Janick Gers would remain. Iron Maiden now had three guitarists and a hugely successful reunion tour, The Ed Hunter Tour. This tour also supported the band's newly released greatest hits Ed Hunter, which also contained a computer game of the same name starring the band's mascot. Iron Maiden's first studio release after the reunion with Bruce Dickinson and Adrian Smith came in the form of 2000's Brave New World. Thematic influences continued with "The Wicker Man" — based on the 1973 British cult film of the same name — and "Brave New World" — title taken from the Aldous Huxley novel of the same name.
The world tour that followed consisted of well over 100 dates and culminated on 19 January 2001 in a show at the Rock in Rio festival in Brazil, where Iron Maiden played to an audience of around 250, 000. This performance was recorded and released on CD and DVD in March 2002 under the name Rock in Rio.
Following their Give Me Ed... 'til I'm Dead Tour in summer 2003 (three months of touring across the Europe And America with 56 gigs to over 1 mlllion fans including Rock am Ring and Rock im Park headlining for combine audience of 120,000 and important, Download Festival premiere event, performing for 50,000 fans), Iron Maiden released Dance of Death. The release of their 13th album was met by critical and commercial success worldwide. Some critics also felt that this release matched up to their earlier efforts like Piece Of Mind and The Number Of The Beast, including their darker imagery rather than the more upbeat reunion album. As usual, historical and literary influences continued — "Montsegur" in particular being about the Cathar stronghold conquered in 1244 and "Paschendale" relating to a significant battle during World War I. The supporting tour for this album, named Dance Of Death World Tour was another landmark for the band, as they played to over 750,000 fans during 50 dates over a period of 4 months in 2003-04. This included sold out dates in South America, Europe, North America and Japan.
Their performance at Westfalenhalle in Dortmund, Germany, as part of the supporting tour, was recorded and released in August 2005 as a live album and DVD, entitled Death on the Road.
In 2005, the band announced a tour to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the release of their first album, Iron Maiden, and the 30th anniversary of their formation. The tour also was in support of the 2004 DVD entitled The Early Days and as such during the tour they only played material from their first four albums. As part of the celebration of their early days, the "Number of the Beast" single was re-released and went straight to number 3 in the UK Chart. The Early Days World Tour included many stadium headline dates and festivals including their historic performance at the Ullevi Stadium in Sweden, playing to almost 60,000 fans. This concert was also broadcast on satellite television all over Europe to over 60 million viewers.
Iron Maiden's last Ozzfest performance (20 August 2005 at the Hyundai Pavilion was at Glen Helen in San Bernardino, CA to almost 50 000 people).
The band completed this tour by headlining the Reading and Leeds weekend festivals on the 26th 28 August - two shows to combined number of people estimated 130 000, and Ireland 31st august to almost 40 000 fans at RDS Stadium. For the second time, the band played a charity show for former drummer Clive Burr's Clive Burr MS Trust Fund charity.
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