Christopher McQuarrie will return to direct two more Mission Impossible films

The Mission Impossible franchise has done what many within the movie industry would say is the impossible. The Tom Cruise-led franchise has never been so lucratively healthy, with each new movie not just outperforming the previous financially but critically as well. The MI series has defied the odds and avoided the pitfalls that so many aging franchises fall into and by doing so has become a force to be reckoned with.  After delivering the biggest box office hit in the “Mission: Impossible” franchise, Paramount Pictures is ready to continue being in business with director Christopher McQuarrie in a big way. 

According to various reports, McQuarrie, who has directed the last two Mission films, has signed back on to return to write and direct not just one but two more films. The same sources say that both films would be shot back-to-back, not unlike many of the epics pieces i.e. Lord of the Rings and Marvel’s Avengers. The same reports suggest that the studio has chosen to do this “in order to take advantage of the popularity of the series, with the first bowing summer 2021 and the second summer 2022”. 

Cruise confirmed his return on Twitter:

Summer 2021 and Summer 2022 pic.twitter.com/V6SNvZx2La

— Tom Cruise (@TomCruise) January 15, 2019

McQuarrie confirmed his return to the series on Twitter.

Missions: Accepted#MissionImpossible

— Christopher McQuarrie (@chrismcquarrie) January 14, 2019

This is a momentous undertaking by Paramount but with the latest Mission Impossible film grossing over $790 million worldwide, the studio was not going to let that momentum slow down and quickly moved to bring McQuarrie and Cruise back. It looks like McQuarrie will now be the primary director moving forward; I mean why fix what isn’t broken — the most recent Mission: Impossible installment, was also the best-reviewed entry with a Rotten Tomatoes score of 97%.