Mission: Impossible 7 Delayed To September 2022

The seventh Mission: Impossible movie will now open on September 30, 2022, a roughly four-month delay. Tom Cruise's own Top Gun: Maverick was pushed back and now sits in the May 27 date previously occupied by Mission: Impossible. The news comes on the heels of reports earlier today that Hayley Atwell has wrapped her work on the movie, and Mission: Impossible 7 is near the end of production. By that point, there were already rumors of a delay, but nothing was confirmed until this afternoon, when Paramount made a series of moves to accommodate Maverick's change on their release calendar.

The film hsa been in production for over a year, with numerous COVID-related delays. At one point, Cruise made headlines after the long-delayed production resumed, yelling at a crew member who was not properly enforcing health and safety protocols.

Back in June, there was a 14-day delay in filming while members of the crew had to isolate after someone involved with production had a positive COVID test. As the Delta variant has spiked coronavirus case numbers around the world, several American productions are beginning to mandate vaccinations for all major cast and crew to avoid such delays as much as possible.

As a result of the multiple delays and difficult shoot, filmmaker Christopher McQuarrie seems to be taking special care to single out the movie's crew for praise.

"I know how it starts and I know how it ends. I know much of what happens in the middle. I'm slightly disoriented as a result," McQuarrie recently teased when asked about the eighth installment. Originally, Mission: Impossible 7 and Mission: Impossible 8 were supposed to film back to back, but it was recently reported that production on the still-untitled eighth installment will begin after Tom Cruise completes promotional duties for Top Gun: Maverick. There is no word yet whether the delay to Maverick will delay filming on the next Mission: Impossible or whether they will try to film some, break, and return.

Mission: Impossible 7 will see the return of Tom Cruise as well as Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, and Vanessa Kirby. In addition to Atwell, Marvel's Pom Klementieff will also be making her franchise debut. Earlier this year, it was announced that Rob Delaney (Deadpool 2), Charles Parnell (Top Gun: Maverick), Indira Varma (Game of Thrones), and Mark Gatiss (Sherlock), would be joining the cast. Henry Czerny, who played Kittridge in the first Mission: Impossible, will be making his first franchise appearance since 1996.