How does one top the action masterpiece that is Mission: Impossible – Fallout? Well, with a two-parter of course. We learned last month that not only has Paramount Pictures enlisted Fallout writer/director Christopher McQuarrie to return for more Mission: Impossible, he’ll be writing and directing two sequels that will shoot back-to-back. At that time it was reported that they would likely be released in 2021 and 2022, and now Paramount has set specific release dates for Mission: Impossible 7 and Mission: Impossible 8.
Mission: Impossible 7 will arrive in theaters on July 23, 2021, which is a couple weeks after Steven Spielberg’s Indiana Jones 5 is due to hit theaters. This date is in keeping with the July release dates of both Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation and Fallout, which performed extremely well. Mission: Impossible 8, meanwhile, will hit theaters on August 5, 2022. That will be the first August release date for the franchise, as the previous films have opened in either May, July, or in the case of Ghost Protocol, December.
Tom Cruise will, obviously, be reprising his role as Ethan Hunt in both sequels. McQuarrie was first enlisted by Cruise to helm Rogue Nation after McQuarrie did important rewrite work on Ghost Protocol in the midst of filming and helmed Cruise in Jack Reacher. After Rogue Nation, McQuarrie became the first director to “repeat” in the Mission franchise, albeit under one condition: he wanted Fallout to feel like it came from a new director. He hired almost all new department heads and switched up his style, which resulted in the highest grossing Mission: Impossible movie yet as Fallout grossed $791 million worldwide.
It’ll be interesting to see how McQuarrie approaches this two-parter. Will he once again feel like he needs to change up his style? Will he change it up for both films, or is the whole thing being approached as one story being told in two parts? There are many unknowns at the moment, but between Rogue One, Fallout, Edge of Tomorrow, and oh yeah his Oscar-winning script for The Usual Suspects, I think McQuarrie has earned the benefit of the doubt when it comes to crafting a good story.
I wholeheartedly choose to accept this mission.
