During the production of Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, an insurmountable rumor was that Jeremy Renner’s Will Brandt was being eyed to take over as the franchise lead from Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt. Over a decade later, in late 2024, Glen Powell debunked another rumor that he would be the next leading man of the franchise that his fellow Top Gun: Maverick actor had started. No matter how long this saga keeps going with Cruise in the lead role, internet speculators are constantly talking about how this franchise is going to get handed off to a new, younger lead any day now.
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With The Final Reckoning looking more and more like the definitive conclusion of this saga, perhaps the day will come soon when a new version of the Mission: Impossible movies will materialize, without Cruise in the lead role. That would certainly parallel how Cruise’s Mission: Impossible movies offered a fresh vision of the TV show from the ’60s. However, that would be a mistake. In fact, I’d go as far as to say that this franchise needs to be buried in a chest once Cruise’s Ethan Hunt is out of the picture.
There Is No Mission: Impossible Film Saga Without Ethan Hunt
Poor Bond, James Bond, has left a terrible pop culture legacy in his wake. The fact that this super-spy could be played by Sean Connery, George Lazenby, and Roger Moore all from 1962 to 1973 (plus Barry Nelson in a 1954 TV movie) led producers of major blockbusters to imagine all movie leads were expendable. Audiences will accept a new 007, surely they’ll accept new versions of other characters as well. This ignores the reality that, in the 1960s and early 70s, Ian Fleming’s original Bond books were still very popular. Connery, as the first big-screen Bond, was already stepping into a figure audiences had a preconceived vision of in their heads.
The casting replacement method for Bond (and the most famous superheroes like Superman, Batman, and Spider-Man) was less a sign that lead actors were disposable and more like how new performers can consistently inhabit Prince Hamlet or Elizabeth “Lizzy” Bennet. Certain iconic characters are so immersed in pop culture that they’re far bigger than one performer. In contrast, most characters newly introduced into movies are too intertwined with their actors to work without them, such as Harrison Ford as Han Solo or Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor. The same is true for Ethan Hunt, a newly created character in the Mission: Impossible mythos solely for the 1996 movie.
Both the Hunt character and the Mission: Impossible franchise functioned as wish-fulfillment fantasy material for Tom Cruise. The ultimate ’80s and ’90s movie star could now push the boundaries of stuntwork and big screen spectacle within the confines of a classic CBS show that Cruise had immense fondness for. Even if a new lead actor took over Mission: Impossible as a brand new character, it’s impossible to imagine it working out. This whole saga is a meta-exercise of Cruise reaffirming his movie star prowess and love for the silver screen.
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Just throwing in Jacob Elordi or Brandon Sklenar into the lead role wouldn’t work. These young performers should get their own original sagas that they imprint on in the same way Cruise immersed the Mission: Impossible movies into his own passions.
What On Earth Does Mission: Impossible Even Look Like Without Ethan Hunt?
It’s worth asking, too, what on Earth a Mission: Impossible movie devoid of Cruise’s Hunt and all of his pals (Luther, Benji, Ilsa, etc.) even looks like. Unless you let a filmmaker as distinctive as Soi Cheang just run wild with the entire franchise’s visual aesthetic, a Mission: Impossible reboot would inevitably look just like a typical Netflix/Apple TV+/Prime Video spy movie on streaming. What appeal would that have to anyone beyond carrying a brand name that reminds moviegoers of superior older espionage features?
By that point, just make an original spy movie that won’t have to contend with Ethan Hunt’s legacy. After all, putting a new leading man into this franchise will just force endless comparisons to Cruise’s work as Ethan Hunt, which has spanned decades. Even Sean Connery’s 21-year streak of Bond movies (which included a 12-year gap from 1971 to 1983) hasn’t lasted as long as the 29 years Cruise has consistently portrayed Hunt. Heck, Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man stint even lasted only 11 years. Mission: Impossible so fully belongs to Cruise that no new performer, not even award season darling Renner, or hunky heartthrob Powell, could hope to live up to.
On top of all that, the clear box office ceiling that Mission: Impossible movies have (with no title in the series exceeding $220 million domestically) makes a reboot with a new lead a bleak prospect from a cynical commerce perspective. Remove Ethan Hunt from the equation, and the domestic box office for Mission: Impossible movies will inevitably collapse further. Paramount Pictures and Skydance Media have gotten decades of mileage out of Cruise’s Mission: Impossible titles. With the series winding down, now’s the perfect opportunity to put the saga on the back burner instead of fully manifesting those dreadful recurring rumors of some hot new leading man taking over Mission: Impossible. Do not accept that mission, Paramount.
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is now in theaters.
