As much as he’s defied all human expectations for a 62-year-old,Tom Cruise’s days of accepting treacherous missions are winding down. Age catches up with everyone, even for someone like Cruise, whose bankable and critically acclaimedMission: Impossiblefranchise is centered around the star hanging off airborne planes, climbing skyscrapers, and launching off mountain cliffs while riding motorcycles. He’s reached increasingly new levels of daring stunts with each subsequent entry in the series, so much so that his only logical step is to perform a solo skydive from outer space.
The franchise’s next installment,Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning, hits theaters next May, and, given the title, it seems like it’ll be the final entry in the franchise. If that is the case,rumors have circulated that M:I will live on without Cruise. While it’s enticing to bequeath the throne to Cruise’s unofficial heir apparent,Glen Powell, the move would egregiously misread the franchise’s appeal and compromise Powell’s emergence as a movie star.
For all of 2024,Glen Powell has been the flavor of the month in movie culture. In an era starved of young movie stars free of capes or superpowers, Powell’s commitment to making mid-budget star vehicles likeAnyone But YouandHit Man, andold-school blockbusters likeTwisters, is a blessing. His origins as Cruise’s potential successor as the next great American movie star began inTop Gun: Maverick, where Powell played the hot shot pilot, Hangman. Cruise, who attended theTwisterspremiere with his former co-star, seems to be endorsing him as his heir apparent, which makes the rumor of Powell taking over Mission: Impossible in the near future sensible, if not suspiciously obvious.
First and foremost, the report is nothing but a rumor making the rounds on the Internet with no sources corroborating this information. As an impromptuguest onThe Pat McAfee Show, Powell, currently filming aremake ofThe Running Mandirected byEdgar Wright, the host inquired about these rumors about taking over M:I, to which Powell jokingly responded,“My mom would never let me do that,” adding that the signature stunts in the series were a “death trap.” While not an explicit denial, he did not lend the rumor credence on the show.
Replacing Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible Would Be Asking a Lot of Its New Star
For the sake of Mission: Impossible’s legacy and the future of Glen Powell’s promising career, this report is better off as a rumor rather than materializing as a fact.Filling Cruise’s shoes is a tall task, but the difficulty of passing the baton to another actor goesbeyond the star’s movie star pedigree. The studio behind the series, Paramount, understands better than anyone, as they allegedly flirted with the idea of replacing Cruise withJeremy Rennerafter the release ofGhost Protocolin 2011 (althoughRenner has denied this claim). What separates Mission: Impossible from the litany of action franchises beyond its impeccable craft is the stunt work, particularly Cruise’s show-stopping stunt serving as each respective film’s centerpiece meal. Asking any actor to carryCruise’s devil-may-care approach to hazardous stuntsis unreasonable and even reckless. During his McAfee phone call, you may hear Powell’s trepidation surrounding the thought of being the lead in M:I, as the honor requires you to put your life on the line.
For better or worse,Mission: Impossibleis an extension of Tom Cruise’s public persona and likeness as a person.His commitment to the franchise has prevented any opportunity to return to thedramas that made him a household name in the 1990s. Cruise is so identifiable as the master of stunts and aerial choreography that the 2024 SummerOlympics closed out with Cruisejumping out of the sky. Cruise’s career pivot to adopt the role in culture as the modern-dayEvel Knievellends Mission: Impossible a personal attribute missing in most blockbusters.
Tom Cruise is soinseparable from Mission: Impossiblethat most would be remiss to acknowledge that it’s based on a 1960s television series that did not feature anyone named Ethan Hunt. All due respect toBruce Geller, but this is Cruise’s story now. The prospect of Glen Powell, propped up as “the next Cruise” by some, being slotted into Cruise’s iconic role rings as lazy Hollywood talent management. From Powell’s perspective, who has made concentrated efforts to avoid being swallowed up by the franchise machine, working on expensive and lengthy movies like Mission: Impossible would be an albatross to his revival ofmovie star-driven mid-budget movies.Let him follow his own path. Besides, there’s no topping whatever bonkers stunt Cruise is about to pull off withThe Final Reckoning, which may just be the last dance.
Mission: Impossible — The Finale Reckoningis expected to hit theaters August 23, 2025
Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning
