Mission: Impossible 8 director addresses rumors Tom Cruise won't return as Ethan Hunt again

Director Christopher McQuarrie has addressed reports that Mission: Impossible 8 (officially titled Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 2) will be Tom Cruise's last outing in the franchise as operative Ethan Hunt, encouraging viewers not to believe 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," he said in an interview on the Light the Fuse podcast.

He added: "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." 

Cruise will be joined by Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Vanessa Kirby, Henry Czerny, Hayley Atwell, Shea Whigham, and Pom Klementieff, along with recently announced new cast members Nick Offerman and Janet McTeer. Previous reports from trade publications said that the seventh and eighth installments would wrap up the franchise.

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 1 arrives on the big screen on July 14, 2023, with Part 2 following on June 28, 2024. In the meantime, check out our guide to the other highly anticipated upcoming movies this year and beyond.