Mission: Impossible 7 and 8 Delayed Until 2023, 2024

Tom Cruise's Mission: Impossible 7 and Mission: Impossible 8 have been delayed until 2023 and 2024, respectively. Mission: Impossible 7 will now open on July 14, 2023 (instead of September 30th); Mission: Impossible 8 will now open on June 28, 2024 (instead of July 7, 2023), as confirmed by The Hollywood Reporter. This marks one of the biggest delays in the 2022 movie schedule, as problems from the COVID-19 pandemic continue to plague both the production and theatrical ends of the movie business. Mission: Impossible 7 was originally scheduled for release on July 23, 2021, before being hit with multiple delays. 

Paramount Pictures and Skydance Productions released a statement on Mission: Impossible's latest set of delays, "After thoughtful consideration, Paramount Pictures and Skydance have decided to postpone the release dates for Mission: Impossible 7 & 8 in response to delays due to the ongoing pandemic. The new release dates will be July 14, 2023, and June 28, 2024, respectively. We look forward to providing moviegoers with an unparalleled theatrical experience."

Tom Cruise has been notoriously driven about completing the next two Mission: Impossible movies and delivering box-office-breaking theatrical experiences to fans again. Cruise inadvertently let the world know as much in a very angry on-set speech to crew members about adhering to COVID safety protocols, back when Mission: Impossible 7 tried to keep up production during the first year of the pandemic. Mission: Impossible has been plagued with multiple production delays since then, and arguably feels like it's turning into one of the classic Hollywood "cursed" productions. That all said, Cruise and director Christopher McQuarrie finished production on Mission: Impossible 7 back in September, and are now on to filming Mission: Impossible 8. 

"All you need is good people," McQuarrie wrote on a post commemorating Mission: Impossible 7's wrap. "To our indomitable, unstoppable, unrelenting cast and crew: Even under the best of circumstances, it should have been impossible. Even having seen it, we can't believe what you've achieved. Words can never adequately express our gratitude and admiration – not only to you, but to your loved ones. You are the best in the world."

As for the franchise's trademark death-defying stunts (often done by Cruise himself)? McQuarrie has been teasing that they are well worth the wait for theaters to be packed again, "We've figured out three obscene things that he's [Tom Cruise] doing that I'm terrified of, that make the helicopter chase [in Mission: Impossible – Fallout] look like tinker toys."

Cruise has added the tease that one stunt, a motorcycle jump, is "the most dangerous thing we've ever attempted."

That's no empty boast, either: an explosion during that motorcycle stunt was responsible for at least one delay in Mission: Impossible 7's production.

Mission: Impossible 7 stars Tom Cruise, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Hayley Atwell, Vanessa Kirby, Henry Czerny, Esai Morales, Pom Klementieff, and Shea Whigham.