Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Two Films A Lot Sooner Than We Thought

The press tour for Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One is almost over, with the film hitting theaters around the world this week. That means work on its follow-up, Dead Reckoning Part Two, is about to start up once again. Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning is set to hit theaters next year, finishing the story started in Part One. There’s work to be done on the sequel, and that work is kicking off as soon as the production team wraps up the premieres this week.

On the red carpet for the Dead Reckoning Part One premiere this week, director Christopher McQuarrie was asked about filming on Part Two. He told Variety that he’s set to begin work just a couple of days after all of the press for Part One ends.

“We finish this tour and, on our way back to the UK, we stop to scout along the way,” McQuarrie said. “And we hit the ground running as soon as we get back, we’re right back into it. I get two days vacation between here and Tokyo, and I’m back on the job.”

As of now, Dead Reckoning Part Two is slated to be released in theaters on June 28, 2024.

Why Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Is in Two Parts

During a recent interview with Collider, McQuarrie explained why he opted to split the Dead Reckoning story between two different films.

“Well, we knew with Fallout. Fallout really grew because of all the character and emotion we were putting into the story, all the things that we had discovered in Rogue Nation that was so unexpected,” McQuarrie shared. “I knew I wanted to expand the cast, and I knew I wanted to give each one of those characters more to do, so I knew the movie was going to be bigger and longer than Fallout.”

“And at which point I said, ‘Why are we fighting this? Why are we going to try to jam this into two hours? Let’s just break it in half and make it two movies.’ That really was the rationale behind it being a two-part movie. It just it wasn’t just that the story was bigger but that we wanted more emotion in the movie,” he added.

Even though it’s only half of the story, Dead Reckoning Part One is already a very long film, clocking in at around three hours in length.

“Yeah, it’s massive, and it was complicated by the fact that certain things in Part Two required stopping Part One to shoot them, whether it was because of weather or actor availability. And so, with all the other challenges that were confronting this movie while we were making it, there was the challenge of stopping in the middle, not even knowing what the full movie was, and trying to predict what it was in the second film. It’s a testament to how great this team is and how patient this cast is. It’s really something,” McQuarrie explained. 

Tom Cruise is back as Ethan Hunt in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, which premieres 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.