Mission: Impossible Star Reveals Thoughts On Spin-Offs
Rebecca Ferguson doesn't want to make a Mission: Impossible spin-off.
Mission: Impossible 7 star Rebecca Ferguson says she doesn’t think a spin-off with her character Ilsa is necessary, or should focus on her alone. In an interview with ComicBook.com, Ferguson discussed the future of her popular character, who made her first appearance in 2015’s Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation. Since that time, Ilsa has become a vital part of the IMF team, staying with the Tom Cruise-produced movie series all the way up to its forthcoming end in 2025 with Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 2.
After a decade with the Mission: Impossible films, a spin-off for her character doesn’t have the same appeal for her that it once did. Certainly, the films have gone on long enough to warrant speculation about such extensions of life for their characters. Since the eighth and final movie will be released just shy of 30 years after the 1996 Brian De Palma picture that started it all, it seems this film series has the staying power and continuing popularity to warrant such a treatment.
For Ferguson, Mission: Impossible is about the team, and a spin-off couldn’t work if it relied solely on her character as its anchor. When she first played Ilsa, she says she loved the character and thought she could definitely have a spin-off. But over time, she realized these films are “a team thing” and that she’d want to see Cruise’s Ethan Hunt and other characters from the team pop in from time to time.
She also stated that a Mission: Impossible spin-off would need to be directed by Chris McQuarrie, who has helmed every Mission film she’s been in and produced by Cruise. It’s not far outside the realm of possibility that Ferguson could get her wish in that regard, as Cruise and McQuarrie have a close working relationship, not only on these films but on Top Gun: Maverick and an upcoming SpaceX project.
Of course, Mission: Impossible has always been about the team, and a spin-off should rightly feature at least some of them, including Simon Pegg and Ving Rhames. For her part, Ferguson will see a future not only in the next two Mission: Impossible installments but also in Dune: Part Two, the sequel to the Oscar-nominated Denis Villeneuve sci-fi epic, reprising her role as Lady Jessica Atreides. Cruise is also, as usual, quite busy as a producer and actor, including teaming up with Steven Spielberg.
None of that forestalls the possibility of a Mission: Impossible spin-off with Ilsa or any of the rest of the team. But if Ferguson’s right—and she probably is—it might not be a direction the franchise needs to go. Still, the original Mission: Impossible series debuted in 1966, nearly 60 years before the current films are set to end, having already spawned a revival in the late ’80s before Cruise came in.
So, for Mission: Impossible, whether it’s a spin-off, a series, or a revival, we’re not ready to say it’s all over just yet. After almost six decades, telling more stories about this team might seem (dare we say it?) impossible, but that’s what the IMF does, right? As far as we’re concerned, anything is possible.
