With the announcement of Mission: Impossible sequels Dead Reckoning Part I and 2, the seventh and eighth chapters in the long-running franchise, came speculation it would be the end of Tom Cruise’s run as IMF agent Ethan Hunt. While there has been this kind of rumor before about Cruise (remember when Jeremy Renner was going to take over?), the trades referring to it as a “sendoff” for Hunt and a “culmination” of the series seemed pretty definitive. Well, not so fast.
Cruise’s creative partner for more than a decade, Christopher McQuarrie, was on the Light the Fuse podcast and downplayed any and all reporting when it comes to Cruise and the M:I productions. Wrapped up in that are reports that Cruise is on his way out of the franchise. He said in response…
“Let me tell you, I’ve been working with Tom Cruise for 15 years and I cannot tell you the number of times I’ve been standing next to the man, witnessed an event, and then read about it in the trades the next day and none of what they describe is actually true.”
McQuarrie continued, “I read that ‘Mission’ was going to be shot concurrently and then we decided not to do that. When you read articles in the trades, just put the imaginary word in front of the headline: ‘The Agenda Is…’ When you read ‘anonymous sources’ or ‘sources close to the production say,’ that’s somebody putting it out there for a specific reason. That’s someone wanting others to think that for a specific reason, and you can never know for sure what those reasons are. You learn to ignore it and laugh at it. In today’s world, you wait 17 minutes, and another news cycle will sweep it away.”
There are always stories surrounding Cruise, whether they be about his personal life or his movies. McQuarrie is saying it’s best to take them with a grain of salt, which is probably true about most things you read on the Internet.
Mission: Impossible-Dead Reckoning Part I opens July 14th 2023, with Part 2 arriving on June 28th 2024.
