Is ‘Dead Reckoning’ the last ‘Mission: Impossible’ film?

The Mission: Impossible series returns in 2023 following a franchise-high installment with 2018’s Fallout, which many have called the best among its peers. Fallout and Rogue Nation director Christopher McQuarrie returns to helm the two-parter with Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One set to his theaters next month, followed shortly by its successor in the summer of 2024.

McQuarrie and Cruise are quite the dream team. The Dead Reckoning duology mark the fourth and fifth time the two have worked together as director and actor, with McQuarrie also serving as a writer in 2008’s Valkyrie, 2014’s Edge of Tomorrow, 2017’s The Mummy, and 2022’s industry darling Top Gun: Maverick. 2016’s Jack Reacher sequel Never Go Back also counts towards the McQuarrie/Cruise saga, with the latter coming on as producer after directing the opener.

While Dead Reckoning will almost certainly not be the last we see of this well-oiled creative machine, there were rumors the films could be offering the conclusion to the Mission: Impossible story, or at the very least Cruise’s tenure as the daring Ethan Hunt.

Will Mission: Impossible end after Dead Reckoning Part One and Part Two?

Christopher McQuarrie did not beat around the bush and instead decided to forthrightly deny that Dead Reckoning will be the last we see of the Mission: Impossible franchise.

The filmmaker told Fandango that the outings are definitely not the final curtain for the franchise and that the team already has “ideas for what comes next.”

Likewise, McQuarrie, albeit more ambiguously, had previously commented on the rumors that Cruise would be bowing out following Part Two. Speaking on the Light the Fuse podcast, the director warned audiences against believing everything they read.

“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.”

While that is not as clear of a rejection as his Fandango scoop, it does make it sound like we’ll be seeing more of Ethan Hunt in the future. Still, even if that doesn’t happen, McQuarrie and Cruise are already drumming up a new film, which the director describes as being “way outside of what you’re used to seeing Tom do.” We’re looking forward to it.

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One hits theaters July 12, 2023, while Part Two comes out June 28, 2024.