Tom Cruise’s Top Gun: Maverick & Mission: Impossible sequels delayed
Paramount Pictures has officially decided to shift the release dates for their three highly-anticipated projects starring Tom Cruise, with the long-awaited Top Gun: Maverick seeing its sixth delay from Independence Day weekend to November as well as the Mission: Impossible sequels both being delayed a year.
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Writer/director Christopher McQuarrie’s Mission: Impossible 7, which still currently in production, is now set to open Memorial Day weekend on May 27, 2022, pitting it against fellow tentpole actioner John Wick: Chapter 4 at Lionsgate, while Mission: Impossible 8 has also been delayed from its November 4, 2022 to July 7, 2023. Filming for the project is expected to begin as soon as Cruise completes his promotional duties for Top Gun: Maverick.
Directed by Kosinski from a script by Peter Craig, Justin Marks and Eric Warren Singer, Top Gun: Maverick is set in a world of drone technology and fifth-generation fighters along with exploring the end of the era of dogfighting. Maverick (once again played by Tom Cruise) is now a flight instructor, who takes Bradley Bradshaw (played by Miles Teller), the son of Maverick’s late partner Nick “Goose” Bradshaw, under his wing. The film also stars Jon Hamm, Val Kilmer, Jennifer Connelly, Glen Powell and Ed Harris.
A follow-up to Tony Scott’s 1986 hit has been in the works for quite some time, with Tom Cruise interested in reprising his role as United States Naval Aviator Lieutenant Pete “Maverick” Mitchell. Producer Jerry Bruckheimer previously outlined that the film will deal with the rise of unmanned drones and pilots becoming a thing of the past.
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Joining Cruise and Hayley Atwell in seventh and eight 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.