Even before the success of 2015's Rogue Nation, the future of the Mission: Impossible franchise seemed assured as Tom Cruise and Paramount announced their shared intent to continue. Now, after a briefly delay while Cruise's new contract was hammered out, the studio has announced that the sixth Mission will be with us in July 2018.
While a small team had already started early prep work on the film, things were curtailed until the pay issue was sorted out. With Rogue Nation's Christopher McQuarrie ready to return and Cruise likely to be joined by Rebecca Ferguson reprising her role as the kick-ass Isla Faust, it all appears to be back on track.
We don't yet know what the story will be, but you expect all the usual Mission elements: action, a crisis for Cruise's Ethan Hunt to solve and probably a scene or two where the actor does something incredibly risky in the name of spectacle. The current date set is 27 July, 2018 in the US, but if the new movie follows Rogue Nation, UK audiences could end up seeing it a day before.
And that was not the only release date announced by Paramount, as Alexander Payne's Downsizing also scored a date, in this case 22 December, 2017. The effects-heavy satirical comedy stars Matt Damon as a man from Omaha who agrees to undergo a popular process that reduces people to a fraction of their size and moves into a community of similarly "downsized" folk.
Christopher McQuarrie confirms his return for Mission Impossible 6.