The Mission Impossible franchise is both critically and commercially successful, but this does not necessarily mean that the series could function without its central star, Tom Cruise. Over the years, the Mission Impossible franchise has repeatedly impressed both critics and viewers with each subsequent sequel. In 2023 and 2024, Mission Impossible 7 and Mission Impossible 8 will hope to keep this success alive as the franchise continues.
The $3.5 billion box office haul of the Mission Impossible series has inevitably led some critics to question whether the franchise could sustain a spinoff. This question, however, begets another important inquiry. Namely, studios hoping to cash in on the success of the series need to know whether Mission Impossible could survive and succeed without its star, or whether the franchise is like the Pirates of the Caribbean movies and relies on one big name to remain consistently profitable.
The Mission Impossible movies are, despite their lead actor’s high profile, the only major franchise that has been sustained by Tom Cruise throughout his multi-decade career. Cruise plays Ethan Hunt, the daring super-spy, in every outing of the Mission Impossible series, and will continue to star in both Mission Impossible 7 and Mission Impossible 8. However, since the series is his only successful franchise, Mission Impossible may also be the first franchise to successfully replace Cruise. The question is whether or not this would work, though, is one that requires fans to consider numerous factors.
Why Mission Impossible Is Cruise’s Most Successful Series
While Cruise is a bonafide movie star, his wattage alone is not what made the Mission Impossible movies a success. After all, after the original movie's success, it took Top Gun: Maverick over thirty years to finally produce a sequel, and that massive hit was one of Cruise’s star-making vehicles. Instead, the reason that the Mission Impossible movies have gone from strength to strength in recent years, earning progressively more impressive reviews and box office, is down to the franchise’s beloved cast. While critical acclaim and commercial success is a rare feat for a long-running franchise, the success of Mission Impossible as a series is rooted in the same thing that makes the Fast & Furious franchise perennially popular. The blockbuster action franchises both have a sense of over-the-top fun that doesn’t stop the movies from being tense throughout because the sprawling cast plays believable (if larger than life) characters who viewers authentically care about.
Mission Impossible Has A Crew (But Not A Family)
Since the Mission Impossible franchise's audience want to know more about and spend more screentime with Simon Pegg’s Benji, Ving Rhames’ Luther, and Rebecca Ferguson’s Isla Faust, this should – on paper – mean that the movies could pivot to focusing on them and avoid addressing Cruise’s absence if the lead moved on. However, this isn't necessarily the case, since the crew is only beloved because they have a colleague in common who all of their antics center around. The supporting players of the Mission Impossible series are a big draw for the franchise because the longstanding, starry cast is a well-established crew with great chemistry. However, although the Mission Impossible cast has improved as an ensemble over time, whereas the otherwise similar Fast & Furious movies were able to survive the untimely passing of star Paul Walker, Cruise’s movies have never been able to de-center their star. The Fast & Furious cast reflects a family dynamic where everyone plays an equally important role, whereas the crew of Mission Impossible is more like James Bond’s Q, Miss Moneypenny, and M. They're great support, but there's no question who the star is.
Cruise Is The Heart Of Mission Impossible
While it is possible that a small-screen spinoff without Cruise would work, a full-blown big-budget blockbuster movie featuring the rest of the Mission Impossible team and not the franchise’s star would be misguided. From his wild stunts to his charisma, Cruise is undeniably the star of each Mission Impossible movie. Since the franchise began, the Mission Impossible movies have slotted the rest of the cast into roles that accentuate Hunt’s abilities and allow him to pull off ever riskier ploys. However, the cast has never established a rapport outside of Cruise’s character, and watching the Mission Impossible team working without him would be akin to seeing how Q and M get on in Bond’s absence — while this could be fun for a few minutes, it is not interesting enough to sustain a series.
Mission Impossible Has A Classic Spinoff Problem
Recently, Stranger Things star Gaten Matarazzo proved himself to be wise beyond his years when the actor was asked about a spinoff from the Netflix hit centering on him and fellow fan-favorite Joe Keery’s characters, Dustin and Steve. Matarazzo noted that Dustin and Steve worked precisely because viewers only saw their schemes in small doses and that the duo could not sustain a full-length series alone. This issue is mirrored in the Mission Impossible franchise, which features comic relief characters who are hilarious in the context of exasperating Cruise’s Hunt, villains who are terrifying when Hunt is pursuing them, and stoic colleagues who have moments of surprising action star prowess when supporting Cruise. However, none of these characters are likely to work as stars of a movie, since their appeal exists entirely within the context of a story that is centered on Cruise’s Hunt.
How A Cruise-Less Mission Impossible Project Could Still Work
Much like Young Sheldon answered the question of how to reboot The Big Bang Theory by changing the cast, the setting, and the style of the series, a successful Mission Impossible spinoff would need to feel nothing like the original movies in terms of tone. Taking the Hobbs and Shaw route and focusing on specific supporting stars, rather than trying to get the whole cast back together and struggling to hide the Cruise-shaped hole in the middle of their dynamic, is the only way this could work. A backstory prequel that focuses on a darker supporting star, like Sean Harris’s villain Solomon Lane or Vanessa Kirby’s White Widow, could do the trick. This would give the franchise a more mature feel and avoid the issue of feeling like a Mission Impossible knock-off, while still fleshing out existing characters who viewers want to know more about. On the other tonal extreme, a comedic spinoff starring Benji and company may not match Cruise's box office success but could offer a low-stakes take on the world of the Mission Impossible series that gives viewers a fresh new perspective on the spy franchise. Either way, there are possibilities for how the Mission Impossible franchise can continue without Tom Cruise.
