Mission: Impossible 8 - Release Date, Cast, Plot, And More Info

Business-wise, "Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning" may have been a slight victim of the Barbenheimer phenomenon, but that didn't mean that Christopher McQuarrie's third entry in the franchise wasn't another stellar piece of blockbuster entertainment from what is easily the greatest Hollywood franchise going. 

Paramount Pictures made the weird decision of opening "Dead Reckoning" just one week before all the premium screens were swallowed up by "Oppenheimer." However, for those of us who did see it on those screens, it blew us away with its impeccable craft, breathless action, and fun, twisty, timely tale of artificial intelligence. In fact, as soon as the credits started rolling, "M:I" fans immediately wanted to see what would happen next between Ethan Hunt and the Entity in the next installment.

So what exactly do we know about the eighth film in the "Mission: Impossible" franchise? Well, your mission — if you choose to accept it — is to read on and discover everything we know so far about the follow-up to "Dead Reckoning."

The sequel to "Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning" was initially set to hit theaters on June 28, 2024, but in October 2023, Paramount announced that the film would be pushed back to May 23, 2025. We also learned the film would be dropping its original title — "Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Two" — although we aren't sure what the eighth movie will be called just yet.

Paramount kicking the movie back isn't a surprise – "Mission: Impossible 8" suspended filming during the WGA strike beginning in May 2023, as director Christopher McQuarrie is also a co-writer on the script and "Mission: Impossible" movies undergo rewrites throughout production. McQuarrie reported that filming was around 40 percent complete when production was halted, making it clear by the fall that the movie would not be ready for release by the following summer.

Fortunately, now that both the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes are over, the eighth Ethan Hunt adventure is underway. Once it finally does arrive (hopefully on that May 2025 date), rest assured that "Mission: Impossible 8" will be a massive event. Because this is a Tom Cruise film shot on IMAX-certified cameras, you know it is going to be on all the premium format screens from IMAX to Dolby to 4DX, and it probably won't make its way to digital purchase and rental for a while after that.

Story details are light for "Mission: Impossible 8" beyond what was set up in "Dead Reckoning." Partly, that's because the sequel is still in the works, and they haven't released a ton of plot information this far out. It's also due in part to how the "Mission: Impossible" movies, especially the ones written and directed by Christopher McQuarrie, are made. These are films written as they make them, with characters and story changing on a constant basis during production. 

But here's what we do know: Ethan Hunt now has both halves of the key and is searching for the sunken Sevastopol submarine, which houses the source code of the Entity, the artificial intelligence that serves as the film's ultimate antagonist. Hayley Atwell's Grace has made "the choice" and decided to join the IMF. How she joins back up with Ethan and the gang, we don't know. Ving Rhames' Luther has decided to go into an offline bunker to further investigate the Entity, which has made its way onto his hard drive. Vanessa Kirby's White Widow is probably none too pleased with being knocked out and used as a pawn in the IMF's game of masks. And we still have Esai Morales' Gabriel on the loose, wondering how the Entity could have been foiled at the end of "Dead Reckoning." That's a lot of story threads to pick up.

With this being a sequel, we will be seeing all of our old friends again. Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames, Vanessa Kirby, Esai Morales, Henry Czenry, Pom Klementieff, Shea Whigham, and Greg Tarzan Davis are all expected to return from "Dead Reckoning." Also returning will be Mariela Garriga as Marie, the woman from Ethan's past who we see in brief, wordless flashbacks. In the seventh film, she was given strangely prominent billing in the credits. She was even given single-card billing, which Whigham and Davis weren't even afforded despite being all over the movie, so it seems like we'll be seeing more of her in this next installment.

"Mission: Impossible 8" also gets a host of new faces people are sure to be pleased about. Joining the cast are Nick Offerman ("Parks and Recreation"), Holt McCallany ("Mindhunters"), Hannah Waddingham ("Ted Lasso"), Janet McTeer ("Ozark"), Katy O'Brian ("Love Lies Bleeding"), Tramell Tillman ("Severance"), Stephen Oyoung ("Twisters"), and Canadian actress Lucy Tulugarjuk. ComicBookMovie.com has also reported that Angela Bassett will reprise her role as CIA director Erika Sloane after she had to drop out of the first film due to COVID issues, although her return hasn't been officially confirmed yet. One character we supposedly won't be seeing is Rebecca Ferguson, whose Ilsa Faust met her end in "Dead Reckoning." However, some are skeptical of whether she's actually dead, and we're hoping she'll make her grand return in the eighth movie.

As has been the case since the franchise's fifth installment, "Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation," the director of "Mission: Impossible 8" is Christopher McQuarrie. He's been a collaborator with Tom Cruise on nearly every project the actor and producer has made since 2008's "Valkyrie," be it as a director, writer, or producer, and the pair have blossomed as one of the more consistent and exciting creative partnerships of the last 15 years.

McQuarrie is someone who prides himself on not having a particular style, seeing himself as a storyteller in service of the picture rather than an "artist." Consequently, all three of his "Mission: Impossible" films feel like they were directed by different people, which is actually a benefit in a long-running franchise like this because you never know what flavor of "Mission: Impossible" you are going to get. The first four films of the series each had a different director, and even though the last three have had the same man behind the camera, they are just as varied as those four. Whether McQuarrie aims to keep "Dead Reckoning" and "Mission: Impossible 8" consistent visually and tonally, we don't entirely know, though we do know that some of the eighth movie was shot during the making of "Dead Reckoning," so stylistic overlap is bound to be unavoidable. 

Along with being the director of the film, Christopher McQuarrie is also the co-writer of "Mission: Impossible 8." Before he even directed a "Mission: Impossible" movie, McQuarrie hopped aboard "Ghost Protocol" mid-production as an uncredited screenwriter. He was the sole scribe of both "Rogue Nation" and "Fallout," but for both the seventh and eighth "Mission: Impossible" movies, McQuarrie brought in a co-writer with Erik Jendresen, probably best known for his work on "Band of Brothers."

Tom Cruise is not just the star of the "Mission: Impossible" series but also a producer. The original "Mission: Impossible" film in 1996 was the first movie he ever produced (with his then producing partner Paula Wagner), and this series has been his baby ever since. The opening credits of these movies now all sport "A Tom Cruise Production" after crediting Paramount. However, Christopher McQuarrie has also joined the ranks as a producer, and "Dead Reckoning" was presented as "A Tom Cruise/Christopher McQuarrie Production." We would assume "Mission: Impossible 8" would receive the same credit. Regardless of how the credits are played out, Cruise and McQuarrie are the two-headed monster that steers this whole operation, and it's worked out pretty well for them so far.