Christopher McQuarrie Says the MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE Franchise Will Continue Until "the Audience Is No Longer Entertained"
The Mission: Impossible franchise kicked off back in 1996, the year that Tom Cruise first stepped into the role of Ethan Hunt and wowed audiences with the intense action and stunts that have only intensified with each film. The first four movies were helmed by different directors, and the fifth film, Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2015) was the first by Christopher McQuarrie, who has gone on to make Mission: Impossible - Fallout (2018), and the two part sequels, Mission: Impossible –Dead Reckoning Part One, which will hit our screens next month, and Mission: Impossible –Dead Reckoning Part Two, headed our way next summer.
McQuarrie, a long-time collaborator of Cruise, wrote the great film The Usual Suspects, for which he won an Academy Award, and he has written, and sometimes directed, Cruise in other ventures including Valkyrie (2008), Jack Reacher (2012), Edge of Tomorrow (2014), The Mummy (2017), and the huge hit blockbuster Top Gun: Maverick (2022).
After these two Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning films are released, Cruise and McQuarrie will come out with their Untitled SpaceX film, which will be the first ever Hollywood movie shot in actual outer space. Doug Liman is directing that one, and it has a ton of buzz surrounding it.
So does that mean the Mission: Impossible franchise could come to an end with the completion of the two-part films, and the new projects in the works for the actor and writer/director of the franchise? According to McQuarrie, he’s open to further explore the M:I world, as long as fans are enjoying it.
At this week’s premiere of Mission: Impossible –Dead Reckoning Part One, McQuarrie was asked on the red carpet if this was the end of the franchise, and he told THR, “Mission: Impossible will end when the audience is no longer entertained.”
Judging by the first reviews of the film, audiences are still pretty stoked about the stories being told by the filmmakers of Mission: Impossible.
Mission: Impossible –Dead Reckoning Part One hits theaters on July 12th.