Hollywood loves a known quantity, so after the impressive box office returns of 2015’s Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, a follow-up movie was inevitable. To date, the franchise has generated worldwide box office to the tune of $2.7 billion, and Paramount is now planning to significantly increase that figure with a July 27th, 2018 release date for Mission: Impossible 6.
The film series is based on the television show Mission: Impossible that ran from 1966 to 1973 and, like that spy drama, chronicles the exploits of the agents of the Impossible Missions Force (IMF). In the film franchise, those agents are led by Ethan Hunt, played by Tom Cruise, who undertakes infamously and increasingly incredible stunts with each successive instalment. The series of spy thrillers has attracted an impressive (albeit entirely male) roster of directors – including Brian De Palma, John Woo, J.J Abrams, and Brad Bird – while the most recent instalment, Rogue Nation, was helmed by Christopher McQuarrie.
Mission: Impossible 6 will see McQuarrie return to the director’s chair, in addition to delivering the script, as Paramount hopes to re-visit the box office success of Rogue Nation. Tom Cruise will slip back into his Ethan Hunt character and, while it has yet to be confirmed, it is anticipated that Rebecca Ferguson will also reprise her Rogue Nation role. In the supporting cast of fellow IMF agents, there are a number of familiar faces that could also return – including Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames, Jeremy Renner, Paula Patton, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, or Maggie Q.
Though the release date of July 27th, 2018 is confirmed, we’ll have to wait some time to find out the full and final title of Mission: Impossible 6, which should then give some indication of the direction of the plot. With production set to begin in spring 2017, we’ll also have to wait to find out how Christopher McQuarrie and Tom Cruise plan to once again push the envelope on action and stunts for this new instalment. Thus far, Cruise has scaled rock faces, tall buildings, and hung off the side of a plane in flight – what the Mission: Impossible team plan to do to top that is currently anyone’s guess.
