Will “Mission: Impossible” 8 Really Be The Final Installment In The Franchise?

“Mission: Impossible —The Final Reckoning” has a title that brings a lot of, well, finality to the franchise. The eighth film in the series (which has continued since 1996) is scheduled to release on May 23rd, 2025. 

Though Tom Cruise’s main character, Ethan Hunt, does specifically say “one last time” in reference to his team’s latest mission, there hasn’t been official confirmation from Cruise that this will actually be the last “Mission: Impossible” film. In fact, he’s said in the past that he believes he could continue playing Ethan Hunt for a long, long time.

But to be fair, Cruise also hasn’t slated any future “Mission: Impossible” movies for release as he has in the past. Because of the eighth movie’s name, there’s been a lot of speculation that this is the way Cruise is announcing the end of the “Mission: Impossible” series at last.

Because Cruise hasn’t yet announced whether or not this will be the end of the series, some fans are speculating that the movies will actually continue onwards after this, and that the title is just there to be catchy. Because Cruise hasn’t said anything about the series ending — with just a few months to go until the newest release — it’s possible that he does plan to continue the series later, as some viewers believe he would make a bigger deal out of the final “Mission: Impossible” installment.

However, others still are coming up with theories that Cruise plans to transition the series into a James-Bond-style franchise, where a new team of actors will “take over” from Ethan Hunt and his crew, but continue onwards in the same universe. Of course, this calls into question whether Cruise would stay on as director, not to mention the direction that the new series would take. Nothing official has been mentioned about this possibility, either.

Given the fact that Cruise is clearly still enjoying his acting career and hasn’t expressed any desire to stop acting or directing just yet, it’s unlikely that this film will be Cruise’s final movie. Whether it will actually be the last “Mission: Impossible” is still uncertain, but it’s pretty easy to say that at this point, things could go either way.