Mission: Impossible 8 has been delayed by nearly a year. Paramount Pictures and Skydance have pushed the highly anticipated Tom Cruise-led spy-thriller to May 23, 2025, from its original release date of June 28, 2024. The move is attributed to the ongoing actors’ strike, which has caused the film and several other major studios to halt production. Other movies will share the same fate if the strike isn’t resolved within the next few weeks. Furthermore, the Christopher McQuarrie-directed sequel to Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One is getting a name change — initially Dead Reckoning Part Two — albeit it will serve as a direct continuation of the 2023 film.
A good chunk — 40 percent — of filming on Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Two was done prior to the strike, but now, the crew will have to wait until the actors’ strike is over. Several major studios including Warner Bros. delayed their 2023 release dates as well, with Dune: Part Two being the biggest one, whose star-studded cast cannot take part in any promotional work or interviews due to the ongoing strike. Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse, sequel to Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, was taken off its March 2024 release window, as its actors aren’t allowed to provide voiceovers for the characters. As per The Hollywood Reporter, the eighth Mission: Impossible movie will be filmed using IMAX cameras, with plans to screen it in IMAX theatres for three full weeks. This is big for Cruise and McQuarrie, whose previous film Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One didn’t get to run as long, due to Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer securing IMAX theatres around the globe.
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One was unable to surpass its predecessor, MI Fallout, at the worldwide box office, collecting an impressive $567.5 million (about Rs. 4,719 crore). Released on July 12, the film was primed for success until a week later Barbie and Oppenheimer arrived in theatres on July 21, dominating the box office and drawing large crowds, thanks in part to the ‘Barbenheimer’ phenomenon. Mission: Impossible 7 pits Ethan Hunt (Cruise) and his spy crew on a globe-trotting quest to track down a bioweapon before it falls into the wrong hands. Making things tough for him are the former IMF director Eugene Kittridge (Henry Czerny) from the first film, the terrorist Gabriel (Esai Morales), and French assassin Paris (Pom Klementieff). Hayley Atwell, a new addition to the cast, plays an ambiguous thief.
Paramount is also delaying A Quiet Place: Day One by three months, moving from March 8, 2024, to June 28, essentially occupying Mission: Impossible 8’s original slot. Billed as a spin-off to John Krasinski’s 2018 horror film, it’s expected to finally show the alien invasion that plunged earth into dead silence. It stars Lupita Nyong’o (Black Panther), Joseph Quinn (Stranger Things), and Alex Wolff (The Pig). The studio has, meanwhile, moved up Krasinski’s Ryan Reynolds-led film IF from May 24 to May 17, 2024. An untitled animated SpongeBob SquarePants movie has also been postponed from May 23, 2025, to December 19, 2025.
Mission: Impossible 8 is now slated to release May 23, 2025, in theatres worldwide.