Age of The Nerd
After the massive critical and commercial success of Mission: Impossible – Fallout last year, Paramount has officially set release release dates for the next two installments in the long-running franchise. Fallout ended up grossing $791 million at the international box office, making it the most successful film in the franchise by a long shot, so this isn’t surprising. Although we recently learned that Christopher McQuarrie would return to write and direct both Mission: Impossible 7 and Mission: Impossible 8, the specific release dates for each film were still unclear. Now, the franchise has accepted it’s two new missions in both 2021 and 2022.
Paramount has set Mission: Impossible 7 for July 23, 2021, which comes only a few weeks after Steven Spielberg’s Indiana Jones 5 is due to be released. Considering that Fallout came out around the same time as the now-inevitable sequel, this date makes sense. Similarly, Mission: Impossible 8, will hit theaters on August 5, 2022. This will provide a slight change for the successful late-July window that the past few installments have adhered to, as well as the first August release in franchise history.
Naturally, Tom Cruise will return to produce and star in the pair of films, along with presumably risking his life in the process. McQuarrie’s return also indicates that the strong partnership between the actor and filmmaker will continue to define the franchise, at least for the next few years. The release dates have been strategically positioned to avoid any sort of conflict with Top Gun: Maverick, which was also re-written by McQuarrie last year. Additionally, the report suggests that the studio aims to start production on Mission: Impossible 7 sometime in the fall of this year.
Other details about either film are pretty much non-existent at this point. With that said, it’s probably safe to assume that Rebecca Fergusson, Simon Pegg and Ving Rhames are sure to return in some capacity. The director famously felt that he needed to change his style coming into his second outing in the franchise, a restriction that ultimately helped to make Fallout so distinct. As the first filmmaker to to return to the franchise with Fallout, it will be interesting to see how McQuarrie’s sensibilities will change with his third and fourth opportunities to helm the franchise. Either way, there will be certainly be a great deal of goodwill until further details are revealed.
What are your thoughts on the prospect of two upcoming Mission: Impossible movies? Make sure to sound off in the comment section below!
