Mission: Impossible 7 and Top Gun 2 release dates delayed again

(Image credit: Paramount Pictures)

Mission: Impossible 7 and Top Gun: Maverick have been delayed yet again, slipping into 2022.

As Deadline reports, Paramount Pictures has pushed Mission: Impossible 7 to September 30, 2022, while Top Gun: Maverick will arrive on May 27, 2022, just in time for Memorial Day.

Mission: Impossible 7 was originally scheduled for November 2021 but was pushed to May 27, 2022 earlier this year. Top Gun: Maverick was once scheduled for release in July 2021 and was previously delayed to November 19, 2021. Now it has become the first major end-of-year release to vacate its spot.

The films' latest delays range from four to six months each, but in total they've both been pushed back nearly a year at this point. The Mission: Impossible delay stings but the original Top Gun came out in 1986, so what's a few more months for the sequel?

The last time Mission: Impossible 7 was delayed, Paramount also updated the window for Mission: Impossible 8, which is already a sure thing. Initially scheduled for November 2022 and later pushed to July 2023, Mission: Impossible 8 may well be shifted around once again to accommodate for Paramount's updated 2022 releases.

Unsurprisingly, Paramount cites the ongoing coronavirus pandemic in its explanation for these delays. Deadline reports that the surge in Delta variant cases forced Paramount to reconsider its 2021 lineup, and the company has apparently decided to play it safe and push everything back until the world is more stable and, hopefully, movie-ready.

There is some hope: Venom 2 might not be delayed (again) after all and No Time to Die looks set to actually come out. In the meantime, check out all the upcoming movies to get excited about.

Austin has been a game journalist for 12 years, having freelanced for the likes of PC Gamer, Eurogamer, IGN, Sports Illustrated, and more while finishing his journalism degree. He's been with GamesRadar+ since 2019. They've yet to realize his position is a cover for his career-spanning Destiny column, and he's kept the ruse going with a lot of news and the occasional feature, all while playing as many roguelikes as possible.