Paramount Pictures isn’t going to take a rest when it comes to continuing their Ethan Hunt franchise. The studio has officially announced thatMission: Impossible 7andMission: Impossible 8are going to shoot back-to-back, with the first coming in 2021 and the second coming in 2022.
Mission: Impossible - Falloutwas one of the summer’s biggest blockbusters, and Paramount wants to continue the momentum, bringing back director Christopher McQuarrie and starTom Cruise. McQuarrie is signed to write and direct both sequels, which will release in their perspective summers. The production process is being compared to that of Marvel’sAvengers: Infinity WarandEndgame, which were also shot back-to-back.
The hope is to take advantage of the continuing popularity of the franchise. The series is taking a break from 2021, so that it doesn’t compete with Tom Cruise’s other Paramount sequelTop Gun 2: Marveick, which has been shooting for a couple of months already and is set for next year. Tom Cruise’s deal carrying him throughMission: Impossible 8has also officially closed.
During his most recent interviews,Christopher McQuarriehinted that he was ready to move on, and wanted to try something else for a little while. He had his eyes set on theWithout Remorseadaptation, also at Paramount, which stars Michael B. Jordan as John Clark. He was also considering directing a DCEU movie for Warner Bros., but passed to continue his work with Tom Cruise.
This past summer’s installment ofMission: Impossible, the sixth movie in the series, brought in an incredible $790 million worldwide. Fallout is now the highest grossing movie in the franchise. Paramount didn’t want to lose their winning team while they could still have it. McQuarrie is going to get cracking on the screenplay while Tom Cruise finishes shootingTop Gun 2. No production start date is confirmed for either sequel, butMission: Impossible 7will need to start shooting sometime in 2019, before the end of this year.
The first few sequels in the big screenMission: Impossibleseries had distinctively different directors and styles. Paramount has decided to settle on McQuarrie in a move that some are comparing to David Yates, and his work directing the last severalHarry Potterinstallments and theFantastic Beastsspin-offs.
Mission: Impossible - Falloutis currently the best reviewed of the six movies. It has a 97% fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes. Paramount hopes that Tom Cruise and Christopher McQuarrie can lock in on this magic yet again. Cruise is known for doing his own stunts for each installment, and will definitely be trying to top himself in each sequel. Shooting Fallout, he broke his ankle during a jump. Let’s hope he can stay in one piece throughout both of these impending sequels. This news comes fromVariety
