The fate of Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt has been a major question going intoMission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning, but the franchise may already have confirmed what will happen to the character. Since theending ofMission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning, questions have been raised about the next installment in the long-running series. At first, the eighth installment was set to be subtitledDead Reckoning Part 2beforeupdates aboutMission: Impossible - The Final Reckoningconfirmed the new title.
Regardless of the title change,theories aboutMission: Impossible - The Final Reckoninghave been commonplace. The most common theories surround the manycharacters ofMission: Impossible 8’s cast, with audiences questioning who will make it out of the film alive. From the fate of Simon Pegg’s Benji Dunn to the potential death of Ving Rhames' Luther Stickell, it is unclear which of the franchise’s beloved heroes will survive. Perhaps the most theorized character death is Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt, but an earlier installment in the franchise may already have revealed his fate.
Ethan Hunt Must Survive In Final Reckoning After Ghost Protocol Failed To Replace Him
The Franchise May Already Have Tried To Replace Tom Cruise
The installment in question isMission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol.Upon the film’s release and the story it told, many assumed that Jeremy Renner’s William Brandt was being set up as the long-term replacement for Tom Cruise should the latter actor depart the franchise. Although this has been somewhat debunked by the actors involved, it is the long-held belief of the audience and industry insiders thatMission: Impossible - Ghost Protocolwas looking to usher the franchise away from Cruise’s Hunt to a new hero altogether.
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Evidently, this potential plan did not come to fruition. Since the film was released in 2011, Cruise has gone on to star in four moreMission: Impossiblemovies when counting 2025’sThe Final Reckoning. The undeniable talent Cruise has for epic, over-the-top stunts, his chemistry with the rest of the cast, and his lovable performance as Hunt proved somewhat irreplaceable, with Renner’s character even being absent from the franchise sinceMission: Impossible - Rogue Nation.
Replacing Cruise would be much more difficult to justify now, with the franchise riding high on its decade-long hot streak, than it was in 2011…
With all this being said, it is likely that Cruise’s Hunt survivesMission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning.It would arguably be even more difficult for the franchise to replace Hunt as the face of the series due to the immense critical and audience acclaim it has received sinceGhost Protocol. That film and its sequels -Rogue Nation, Fallout, andDead Reckoning -are regarded as thebest-rankedMission: Impossiblefilms.As such, replacing Cruise would be much more difficult to justify now, with the franchise riding high on its decade-long hot streak, than it was in 2011.
M: I – The Final Reckoning Is Not The End Of The Franchise (As Far As We Know It)
Ethan Hunt’s Survival Makes More Sense If The Series Is To Continue
For years, there has been much discussion and speculation over whetherMission: Impossible - The Final Reckoningwill end the franchise. Reportedly, Paramount wished to market the film as such when the seventh and eighth installments were confirmed, yet Cruise refused this idea. Regardless, the marketing forThe Final Reckoningseems to imply it is the last entry, from the titular finality to Cruise’s Ethan Hunt asking his team to trust him “one last time.” Despite all this, no official confirmation has been given to suggest thatM:I 8is the last movie we will see in the series.
The Final Reckoning Killing Off Ethan Would Only Spark Uncertainty About The Franchise
Ethan’s Fate Would Place The Franchise In An Interesting Situation
ShouldMission: Impossible - The Final Reckoningactually kill Ethan Hunt, the situation would be admittedly intriguing. On one side, the death could be seen as signifying the end of the franchise, as Cruise and his character have been the face of it for almost 30 years. Killing Hunt would be a logical endpoint, not to mention an emotionally and narratively satisfying one. On the other hand, though,some audiences may have difficulty buying that Cruise’s Hunt is actually dead, thus throwing the franchise into future uncertainty.
A case of this happening in recent years is theJohn Wickfranchise.John Wick: Chapter 4killed off Keanu Reeves' titular character, but that did not stop endless theories that he was somehow still alive. Many had trouble accepting that theJohn Wickseries is over, with questions and queries aboutJohn Wick 5’s storybecoming more prevalent than ever. IfMission: Impossible - The Final Reckoningkills off Cruise’s Ethan Hunt, the franchise may suffer a similar period of uncertainty, and that is without the difficult task of replacing Hunt, which the franchise has failed to accomplish in the past.
Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning
Cast
Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning follows Ethan Hunt and his team as they pursue a formidable AI called the Entity that has compromised global intelligence networks. With new allies and a haunting figure from Hunt’s past in pursuit, they must act quickly to avert a global catastrophe.
