Movies: Could Mission Impossible Be The Next James Bond?

Tom Cruise has been playing Ethan Hunt since 1996 and there’s more to come. 26 years later and the Mission: Impossible franchise doesn’t seem to be slowing down. Fans still love these movies but the downside is Tom Cruise can’t be in them forever. He’ll be 60 years old this year and still looks and feels the part, but how much longer can he be the lead in the series. There are at least two more coming out by 2024 but is it time for Cruise to pass the torch? Could another actor carry the franchise to a James Bond-level franchise that spans multiple generations?

The hardest part of building a franchise like James Bond is consistency. You can’t just take a franchise and hit the reset button and keep redoing the same character with a different actor and tell the same story. When comes to James Bond he’s not just a man, he’s a position within the agency. Plenty of actors have played Bond before, but each time the premise is the same, but the plot is different. This is their primary reason for success, not creating the same story over and over again.

Think of the Batman movies. When it comes to Bruce Wayne/Batman, every time a new actor plays him, the director chooses to go back and tell the same origin story that we’ve seen, with the same villains, and the same basic plot. Audiences have yet to see some of the greatest Batman story arcs from the comics play out on the big screen. Hitting the reset button each iteration kills any shot of advancing the story.

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With Mission: Impossible, if they can transition from Tom Cruise to the next great young actor, the story could go on for some time. First, you don’t even have to take Tom Cruise away from the film. Have him go from being the lead to the supporting actor role. He can be the guy who trains and oversees the next person in his agency. It’s a role he can keep going despite not being the center of attention. On top of passing the torch to the next generation, if they can continue the success, the next actor could. pass the torch even further and it would to a surprise cameo from Cruise even further in the franchise.

The last iteration, Mission Impossible: Fallout, was the most successful in terms of box office numbers. It would be a shame to see a franchise that has almost a 3-decade run, be rebooted when the actor ages out of the role. Mission: Impossible has the staying power that James Bond does and with a creative writing staff should be able to continue well into the future. If the movies were limping to profitability at the box office and struggling to break even, it would be a different story. However, they’re only getting stronger. There’s clearly an audience that wants to see these movies continue, but will they wait too long to bring in the next set of stars?