Mission: Impossible 7 Cut Plans for De-Aged Tom Cruise Because It Was Distracting

There's been a lot of conversation and controversy around the de-aging of actors in movies, especially after the opening sequence of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny featured a digitally de-aged Harrison Ford. Another movie hitting theaters this summer, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, toyed with the exact same idea. According to director Christopher McQuarrie, the production team looked into de-aging Tom Cruise for the opening of the seventh Mission: Impossible film as a way to help establish his backstory.

Speaking to GamesRadar+, McQuarrie said he tinkered with de-aging Cruise for some scenes in Dead Reckoning, but ultimately found it too distracting and opted not to move forward with it.

"Originally, there had been a whole sequence at the beginning of the movie was going to take place in 1989," McQuarrie explained. "We talked about it as a cold open, we talked about it as flashbacks in the movie, we looked at de-aging."

"One of the big things about [de-aging] I was looking at while researching, I kept saying, 'Boy, this de-aging is really good' or 'This de-aging is not so good. Never did I find myself actually following the story," he added. "-I was so distracted by an actor that I had known for however long was now suddenly this young person."

While it was distracting for McQuarrie when applying it to Cruise, the director does believe he figured out a way to make it work for future movies.

"In researching that, I cracked the code — I think — on how best to approach it. By then we had kind of moved away from it. We may still play with it. We never say never."

Mission: Impossible 7 Box Office

The newest Mission: Impossible has received some of the best reviews of the franchise to-date, which are helping push the film to a big opening at the box office.

Dead Reckoning Part One is one of the rare films opening in theaters on a Wednesday, rather than a Friday, giving it a couple of extra days to add to its opening total. The film got off to a good start on Tuesday night, raking in around $7 million in previews. Overall, Dead Reckoning is eying a five-day opening of around $95 million.

Tom Cruise is back as Ethan Hunt in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, which premiered in theaters on July 12th. It's the beginning of the end for the action-packed franchise, as Cruise reteams with longtime collaborator and filmmaker Christopher McQuarrie for more death-defying and breathtaking stunts. Hunt and allies Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson), Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames), and Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg) attempt to track down a new weapon with the power to tear the world apart. Actors Hayley Atwell, Pom Klementieff, and Esai Morales join the cast for the latest installment in the Mission: Impossible franchise, which is set to wrap up with Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Two.