Tom Cruise Already Knows Where The Mission: Impossible Franchise Might Go Next

On July 27, the sixth Mission: Impossible movie comes out, and like always, Tom Cruise plays Ethan Hunt, an agent of the fictional IMF, or Impossible Missions Force. While it's unclear how many Mission Impossibles movies there will be in total, it doesn't seem like anyone involved in the series has plans to end after Fallout. It's too soon to know now, but the chances of at least a seventh Mission: Impossible movie seem very high, at least based on what the movies' star Simon Pegg, who plays Benjamin "Benji" Dunn, has said.

While talking with the Brazilian site Cinepop, an interviewer asked Pegg if M:I 7 is in the works. Pegg said, "Not yet, [but] the story shows no sign of slowing down," before adding, "Never say never." Seeing as Pegg has played Benji since the third M:I movie, he seems like a reputable source. According to Hindustan Times, Cruise also has high hopes for the future of Mission: Impossible, based on an interview that the actor had with Total Film magazine. "I have a lot of ideas about the next phase, about the next two or three, of where I want to go. I’m not ready to discuss it now, but you’ll be able to see when you see this movie. It’s very much the epic in all of this series," Cruise told the British magazine.

Christopher McQuarrie directed Fallout, making him the first person to direct more than one movie in the M:I series. That doesn't mean the new movie is just like the last McQuarrie-directed installment, 2015's Rogue Nation, however. In Pegg's interview with Cinepop, the actor promised that Fallout id the darkest movie of the M:I series yet. Perhaps for that reason, the film is predicted to earn $50 million in box office sales during opening weekend, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

If that prediction comes true, an additional Mission: Impossible movie seems all but inevitable. Considering the fact that Hollywood currently loves nothing more than a sequel, it makes complete sense for a seventh M:I movie to come out in a few years. But it also makes sense that the series would need to make a few changes for the next film, specifically in the way that Cruise films his stunts. Everyone knows that the actor proudly performs his own stunts in Mission: Impossible movies, but he broke his ankle while filming Fallout last year, during a scene when he had to jump from one building to another.

Should M:I actually rival a franchise like Fast and the Furious by reaching double digits in its sequels, Cruise might want to consider handing over his riskiest jumps to a stunt double — even if just the ones when he has to clear a 30 foot gap from 12 stories up. Maybe Cruise's costar from MI: 6, Henry Cavill, could do it. Either way, it definitely seems like more Mission: Impossible movies will come around sooner than later.