Mission: Impossible Fans Get The Worst Sequel News

According to a source at The Hollywood Reporter, the upcoming sequel has been delayed until at least 2025 as the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes have shut down productions for a large portion of this past year.

Paramount’s entire release schedule has been impacted by these work stoppages, resulting in the studio shifting other films such as A Quiet Place: Day One by several months as well.

The eighth installment in the Mission: Impossible franchise is also said to be changing its name, dropping the motif of ‘Dead Reckoning’ though no word has been given yet as to what the new title will entail.

For those who had previously planned to dive head-first into the high-octane action of another stunt-heavy Tom Cruise vehicle in 2024, this news is surely quite devastating.

Luckily, the massive film retains such box office promise and A-list attachments to remain in play despite the ongoing screen actors strike, unlike a number of other projects which have been axed entirely as a result of the prolonged work stoppage.

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 1 opened over the summer just before the screen actors union joined the writers guild on strike, grossing over $567 million at the global box office.

2023 films such as The Flash, Elemental, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, and The Little Mermaid all served as box office disasters, resulting in a rising fear from studio heads regarding their slate of upcoming projects, even without factoring labor strikes into the equation.

With a leading cast consisting of such talent as Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Vanessa Kirby, and The Guardians of the Galaxy‘s Pom Klementieff, the franchise seemed to be in a secure position in its ability to maintain production, even as a number of other projects have seen historic losses at the box office.

The new Mission: Impossible film has been given a tentative premiere date of May 23, 2025, though this is likely subject to change if Hollywood trends don’t shift in the very near future.

The film’s original premiere date was set for June 28, 2024, though a number of major projects originally slated for 2024 have been shifted from their planned release or outright canceled.

Ryan Reynolds‘ Deadpool 3, for instance, has seen major setbacks as a result of the strikes, which began while the Marvel-owned project was roughly halfway through filming.

Other Paramount films that join Mission: Impossible in being shifted include a Ryan Reynolds and John Krasinski-led film titled If, as well as an untitled Spongebob Squarepants feature which was originally planned for Spring of 2025.

Though many fans were able to hold out hope that the strikes would come to an end after the WGA was able to cut a deal with the AMPTP last month, the studios have continued to hold strong in their unwillingness to negotiate with SAG-AFTRA performers for a fair deal.

Obviously, the ripple effects of these strikes has been massive, with ramifications that audiences will continue to feel for years to come.