Ahead of the seventh installment’s 2022 debut, it seems like the production on the long-delayed Mission: Impossible 8 has already begun in the newly-released set photos (via The Sun), teasing another death-defying stunt for franchise lead Tom Cruise. The Mission: Impossible 8 photos, which you can check out below, feature Cruise as he rehearses one of the film’s major stunts which involves him hanging upside down on the wing of a World War II biplane.
NEW#TomCruise hangs on a wing of a upside down plane as he trains for #MissionImpossible8. pic.twitter.com/TH9Gqeo5i8
— Tom Cruise News (@TCNews62) November 27, 2021
OMG! Tom was seen hangs on wing of upside down war plane for ‘Mission Impossible 8’
(November 26,2021) pic.twitter.com/jjjRvLj2Zl— тoм crυιѕe,ғacĸ yeaн (@TomCruiseFY) November 27, 2021
Earlier this year, it was previously reported that Paramount Pictures had canceled their back-to-back filming plans for Mission: Impossible 7 and 8 in order to give way to Cruise’s promotional duties for Top Gun: Maverick, which at the time was set for a July 2021 release. However, due to the ongoing pandemic, the Joseph Kosinski-directed sequel was further delayed and was pushed to May 27, 2022. Because of this, it’s likely that the studio has reconsidered their initial plans and has set a much earlier filming start for Mission: Impossible 8, which is over two months after the production wrap of the seventh installment.
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Joining Cruise and Hayley Atwell in the seventh and eighth installments are returning Mission: Impossible alums Rebecca Ferguson (Doctor Sleep), Simon Pegg (Ready Player One), Ving Rhames (Pulp Fiction), Vanessa Kirby (Hobbs & Shaw), and Henry Czerny (Ready or Not) along with newcomers Shea Whigham (Joker), Pom Klementieff (Guardians of the Galaxy 2), Rob Delaney (Deadpool 2), Charles Parnell (Top Gun: Maverick), Indira Varma (Game of Thrones), Cary Elwes (Stranger Things), Mark Gatiss (Sherlock), and Esai Morales (La Bamba, Titans), who will replace Nicholas Hoult (Mad Max: Fury Road) for the villain role.
Following the large critical and commercial success of the past two installments, writer/director Christopher McQuarrie inked a deal with the studio to return to write and direct the next two installments, with Skydance Media, who joined the franchise in the fourth installment, Ghost Protocol, will be returning to produce the next two entries.
RELATED: Top Gun: Maverick: Miles Teller Details Intense Training for Real Flight Stunts
The Mission: Impossible franchise spans almost 25 years and six films, starting off with modest critical and major box office success in the first two films before launching its lead protagonist into grittier and more explosive stories, each film getting progressively better reviews than its predecessor, with the most recent installment, Fallout, earning the highest reviews for both the franchise and the action genre, currently maintaining a 97% approval rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes while also acquiring the highest box office gross of the franchise at over $790 million worldwide.
Mission: Impossible 7 is set to premiere on September 30, 2022, followed by Mission: Impossible 8 on July 7, 2023.
