Mission: Impossible - Fallout director Christopher McQuarrie reveals star Tom Cruise is already plotting "really big ideas" for a hypothetical seventh installment. Debuting in 1996, the M:I film franchise is one of the few Hollywood properties that got better with age. It's arguably the best action/spy series in the industry today, after Ghost Protocol, Rogue Nation, and Fallout all received widespread critical praise and performed very well at the box office. Fallout ranks as the brand's highest-grossing entry with $791 million worldwide.

An integral component to the films' prolonged success, of course, is Cruise's willingness to put his body in harm's way for the sake of entertainment. With each entry, he attempts to outdo his latest outrageous stunt. Just this decade, fans have seen the actor scale the world's tallest skyscraper, hang on the side of a plane, and do a HALO jump - all of which were done practically. To the average moviegoer, there wouldn't be anywhere else left to go, but Cruise is formulating a game plan.

In an interview with Collider, McQuarrie was asked about any Mission: Impossible 7 updates. While the director himself has yet to commit to the project, it sounds like it's very much on Cruise's radar:

I can tell you Tom already has a lot of really big ideas. Yeah. World-topping s***.


Paramount has not formally announced another globetrotting adventure for Ethan Hunt and his IMF team, but the studio would obviously be interested in continuing what's become one of their more reliable tentpoles. Based on the critical and audience reception to Fallout (many consider it one of the best action movies of all-time), there's definite demand in seeing more of what Cruise and company have to offer. Series staple Simon Pegg, who's played IMF agent Benji Dunn in the last four films, said over the summer M:I is showing no signs of slowing down, so the principal players all expect to return. It's true Fallout could easily serve as a final chapter of sorts, as it resolved hanging plot threads from the previous movies. In that sense, there might be some inherent risk in returning to that well, but Cruise (who's a producer on the films) wouldn't move forward with something unless he was completely confident in its quality.

As for when audiences could see these "world-topping" ideas on the big screen, it might be a while. Cruise is currently filming Top Gun: Maverick, which is currently scheduled as Paramount's big blockbuster for summer 2020. Seeing that the studio doesn't traditionally rush Mission: Impossible movies out of the gate (the three-year gap between Rogue Nation and Fallout is the shortest in the series), it would mean Mission: Impossible 7 likely wouldn't premiere until 2021 at the earliest. If a seventh entry is to happen, odds are it'll have to be in the nearish future. Cruise may be an ageless wonder, but he's approaching his 60th birthday and won't be able to go all-out on stunts forever.