Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning director opens up on potential spinoffs from the franchise

In Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, which is the lates installment in the Tom Cruise-led franchise, director Christopher McQuarrie brings Ethan Hunt’s story to a pulse-pounding climax, but speculations about potential spin-offs have been sparking debates regarding future possibilities for the narrative. But for Quarrie, a spin-off might not be the best of ideas right now.

At a deeper level, Mission: Impossible isn’t just about explosions, disguises, and Tom Cruise hanging off an aircraft. It’s about camaraderie between teammates and their commitment to the task at hand. Take Ethan out of the equation, and what’s left might look like Mission, but it wouldn’t really feel like it.

Speaking about why a potential spin-off might not work out as well as fans think, Quarrie told The New York Times:

One of the things I love about [Ethan and his friends] is that they are a team. They’re all great characters, but if you spin them off, you would lose two things entirely: One, you’d lose what Ethan Hunt brings to the franchise in terms of its scale and its action, and you’d also lose the team. It would cease to be the “Mission” we know. That’s not to say somebody couldn’t invent a new “Mission Impossible.” Having worked on a few of them, I can say, “Good luck.”

Still, he isn’t shutting the vault door entirely. While there’s no roadmap yet for a Mission: Impossible multiverse, a fresh voice could someday redefine what “impossible” really means. So, should we expect a franchise handoff? Not quite. But a reinvention? Maybe, that is, if someone’s bold enough to take the leap, and survive the fallout.

More details on Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning isn't just another wild ride off a high helicopter (though, yes, Tom Cruise does that too). It's the explosive closing chapter in a franchise that redefined action cinema, and true to form, it goes out not with a whisper but with a bang.

Director Christopher McQuarrie, who’s been Cruise’s right-hand chaos coordinator since Rogue Nation, has set the final mission against death-defying stunts, global stakes, and a kind of team chemistry you can’t manufacture. Tom Cruise returns as Ethan Hunt, aka the man with nine lives, and also serves as producer alongside McQuarrie. The cast is stacked: Simon Pegg’s Benji is back with the quips, Ving Rhames as Luther, and Hayley Atwell returns to throw punches and curveballs. Esai Morales as Gabriel serves as the film’s primary villain, while Angela Bassett and Pom Klementieff also star.

The film also has had an impressive collection in terms of money. With a worldwide gross of $450 million, Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning became Paramount’s biggest box office beast of 2025. Its Memorial Day opening alone raked in $79 million, and Cruise casually broke a Guinness World Record for most flaming parachute jumps.

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is now running in in theatres