Tom Cruise is returning for the seventh and eighth "Mission: Impossible" movies. Slated for a 2021 and 2022 release, the upcoming movie which will also bring back director and writer Christopher McQuarrie could be Cruise's last outing as the IMF agent Ethan Hunt.
According to Variety, Cruise and McQuarrie will film the next two installments of "Mission: Impossible" back-to-back. No filming date has been set as of press time, but the reports further stated Paramount Pictures would like the cameras to roll sometime this 2019.
With the studio seemingly adamant to begin work on "Mission: Impossible" 7 and 8 to allegedly "take advantage" of the franchise's popularity, speculations are rife that these movies are being set up as the big sendoff for Cruise. The actor has been playing his iconic character since the first movie's release in 1996.
Now that he's almost 60 years old, fans believe that the actor has reached his physical limits with the stunts. It should be recalled that Cruise, who does his action scenes, broke his ankle while filming "Mission: Impossible - Fallout" in 2017 and work on the set was shut down a few months.
But Cruise is the only constant fixture in the "Mission: Impossible" franchise. Over two decades, the actor was able to work with different directors, writers, and cast members as the storylines and missions changed. Is the studio prepared to let him go?
Ving Rhames (Luther Stickell) has been with the franchise since day one as well. But the actor only had a cameo and was uncredited in the 2011 release of "Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol," the fourth movie in the series.
Meanwhile, Cruise is currently working on the sequel of his 1980s film "Top Gun," which explains why "Mission: Impossible" 7 and 8 can't begin production just yet. "Top Gun: Maverick," which will reunite Cruise with Val Kilmer and feature Miles Teller, started filming last December and it is expected to wrap up sometime this spring.
McQuarrie, on the other hand, was set to do a film for DC after the release of "Mission: Impossible - Fallout" in 2018. But the director reportedly turned down the offer from Warner Bros when it became apparent that Paramount wanted to reunite the director with Cruise for another mission. Reports also stated that the studio was quite happy with the Cruise and McQuarrie tandem, given how much "Fallout" made waves at the box office last year.
