Christopher McQuarrie is set to return to write and direct Mission: Impossible 7 and Mission: Impossible 8. McQuarrie joined the Tom Cruise led action franchise with Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation in 2015 and became the first director to return to the franchise by tackling Mission: Impossible – Fallout. The latter hit theaters last year and had the highest opening weekend in the series’ history.
Although it was Brad Bird who helped further relaunch the franchise with Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, the franchise has reached its full potential under McQuarrie. The last two entries, for many, are viewed as the best of the entire series, with the spectacle and danger fueling the films at the box office, especially Fallout. However, McQuarrie also has shown the ability to tie the entire journey of Ethan Hunt together and left the door open for future adventures with how Fallout ended.
Related: Tom Cruise Has ‘Really Big Ideas’ For Mission: Impossible 7
Variety has now revealed that Cristopher McQuarrie is once again returning to the franchise, but to write and direct two Mission: Impossible sequels. The plan is for McQuarrie to write the scripts for the films now while Cruise is busy filming Top Gun: Maverick and then film them back-to-back starting later this year. Their hope is that the seventh and eighth installments of the franchise will hit theaters in the summers of 2021 and 2022. McQuarrie took to Twitter to confirm the news:
Cruise also joined in on the excitement by sharing the following tease:
With McQuarrie locked in for two more installments, he will go on to direct four Mission: Impossible films overall. It will also continue the strong working relationship he has with Cruise, as McQuarrie has become Cruise’s go-to guy for script revisions, received credit on The Mummy and just did work on the Top Gun sequel too. This collaboration has helped deliver Mission: Impossible with some of its best moments and the continued partnership hopefully means the quality will continue in the upcoming installments.
Now that Paramount has secured an immediate future for the Mission: Impossible franchise through McQuarrie’s directing, fans will undoubtedly be wondering if these two sequels could be the end. As much as moviegoers enjoy seeing Cruise attempt insane stunts, he will be 60 by the time the eighth film hits theaters. Cruise suffered a major ankle injury while filming Fallout that forced production to be shut down for weeks while he recovered, and that may be a sign that he physically won’t be able to do the stunt-heavy role for that much longer. Since Paramount has now planned for two more films and for them to be shot back-to-back (much like what Marvel Studios did with the end of Phase 3’s Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame), it is possible that this announcement – as great as it may be – could be a sign of the franchise’s end. That is just speculation for the time being though, so fans can meanwhile celebrate the guarantee of Mission: Impossible 7 and Mission: Impossible 8.
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