Perhaps Tom Cruise is just having way too much fun with the wild stunts created for the Mission: Impossible movies, as the franchise is not set to conclude anytime soon. As Ethan Hunt, Cruise returns in Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One, the seventh installment of the Mission: Impossible movie series. It's part one of a two-part story, as Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part Two is also scheduled to hit theaters next year.
Previously, it had been reported that the Dead Reckoning movies would serve as a send-off for Ethan Hunt, and the eighth film would serve as the final chapter of the Mission: Impossible series. However, director Christopher McQuarrie says that's not the case. McQuarrie, who directs both Dead Reckoning films, also helmed the previous installments Rogue Nation and Fallout. It would seem that he's hoping to take on a fifth Mission: Impossible film as well, revealing to Fandango that Dead Reckoning is not the end of the franchise. Better yet, McQuarrie says that he and the Mission: Impossible team "already have ideas for what comes next."
Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One was co-written by McQuarrie and Erik Jendresen, while McQuarrie also produces with Tom Cruise. Along with Cruise, the film stars Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Vanessa Kirby, and Henry Czerny. In this chapter, Ethan Hunt (Cruise) and his team are attempting to track down an extremely dangerous weapon that threatens the fate of the world, but a very powerful enemy stands in their way.
Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part Two is directed by McQuarrie and written by the director alongside Erik Jendresen; it is also produced by McQuarrie and Cruise. Along with the aforementioned cast members from the first Dead Reckoning, the sequel stars Esai Morales, Pom Klementieff, Shea Whigham, Holt McCallany, and Nick Offerman.
Related: Mission: Impossible 7 BTS Featurette Teases Major Chase Sequence for Tom Cruise & Hayley Atwell
"Let me tell you, I've been working with Tom Cruise for 15 years and I cannot tell you the number of times I've been standing next to the man, witnessed an event and then read about it in the trades the next day and none of what they describe is actually true," McQuarrie previously said on the Light the Fuse podcast, referring to the reports that the franchise would end with Dead Reckoning. "When you read articles in the trades, just put the imaginary word in front of the headline: 'The Agenda Is.' When you read 'anonymous sources' or 'sources close to the production say,' that's somebody putting it out there for a specific reason. That's someone wanting others to think that for a specific reason, and you can never know for sure what those reasons are."
In any case, it would seem that the franchise isn't ending so soon after all. Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One will be released by Paramount Pictures in movie theaters on July 12, 2023, followed by the release of Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part Two on June 28, 2024.