‘Mission: Impossible’ Franchise Climax Is A Perfect Setup For Paramount+ Series

Paramount released the first trailer for writer-director Christopher McQuarrie’s Mission: Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One yesterday, in an early promotional buildup to producer-star Tom Cruise’s two-part final appearance as the blockbuster franchise’s intrepid secret agent Ethan Hunt. Which makes it a perfect time and setup for planning a Paramount+ Mission: Impossible streaming series.

When Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Two hits theaters in 2024, Cruise will have played Ethan Hunt in all eight films across a span of 28 years. That’s a tremendous legacy of world-building that set the stage for numerous other characters to continue forward — or backward, for some cool prequel potential — in both theatrical and streaming spaces for the Mission: Impossible franchise.

Some are obviously more suited for cinematic distribution, such as the continuing adventures of Rebecca Ferguson’s Ilsa Faust, if her character survives the eighth film and doesn’t disappear into retirement along with Cruise’s Hunt. Meanwhile, other ideas might work better in the long-form approach of a streaming series, including for example the story of Ethan’s early years of training for the Impossible Missions Force (IMF) and his early adventures.

I’ve long felt the Mission: Impossible series was a near-perfect template tonally and kinetically for how Marvel Studios could’ve hypothetically approached an Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. movie franchise. So it’s not hard to imagine how a Mission: Impossible streaming series on Paramount+ could compare favorably to Marvel’s MCU series on Disney+, if approached with the same level of quality the films maintain (even the least-popular M:I movie is better than most modern action films, and that’s not a knock on modern action films but rather a testament to how excellent M:I is).

We could look to series like Alias, Chuck, 24, Burn Notice, Person of Interest, Jack Ryan, and yes Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. as examples of the potential for high-concept high-quality action-espionage series, and few of those had the added advantage of being a global known brand right out the gate.

Mission: Impossible would instantly be must-see streaming/TV. Imagine having two or three M:I series to watch, on par with the storytelling and action quality of the movies — maybe a prequel about Ethan’s training and early years, and perhaps another show similar to the films but following a different set of agents (or someone from the film series spun off into their own show) in modern times, and possibly a third series about IMF during the Cold War of the 1950s and 1960s.

Those are just a few obvious ways they could easily find exciting, unique approaches for expanding the M:I universe into streaming while the theatrical brand maintains the same level of global IP popularity and scale. Over time, it will be increasingly obvious how much top-tier exploration of M:I’s world is possible.

Once Cruise bows out as the lead, a nearly three-decades era will come to an end and — like the Marvel Cinematic Universe — usher in a new era that can embrace the potential to tell stories in a larger world across multiple platforms to engage viewers wherever they are. Some of those stories are best suited for theatrical release. And some of those great stories with enormous potential are best suited for streaming.

Since there is disagreement between Cruise and Paramount regarding the 45 day theatrical window before the latest M:I chapter arrives on Paramount+. Perhaps the studio could strike a balance — no 45 day theatrical window for the films, in exchange for a good deal for streaming spinoffs which include Cruise’s and McQuarrie’s involvement in production at least in the creation and launch stages.

Cruise’s involvement in the marketing and branding of the shows would be invaluable, and he might be eager to be hands-on with setting up the future of a property that’s such a huge part of his legacy. I’m surprised there isn’t already an animated series, but that’s another avenue they should explore.

Since the next two Mission: Impossible films will bring an end to Cruise’s Ethan Hunt persona as the series protagonist, the potential of a total reboot also exists. In that scenario, perhaps the best approach will be to launch a live-action streaming series alongside a rebooted theatrical series, using the streaming series the way Marvel currently uses their streaming shows on Disney+ to continue the stories from the films, fill in other stories that take place in between, and set up future events and characters for the films.

In fact, even a full reboot of the film franchise would favor the concurrent development of multiple unique M:I series that might include a prequel about the earliest Cold War days and missions of the IMF (including for example a younger field operative version of some main IMF leadership character in the film series), a “early days in training and on missions” series about the main character of a rebooted series (maybe Ethan Hunt again), and a main regular streaming series set in the timeline the movies.

This is all obviously purely just speculation for fun, but it’s also true that some ideas seem to naturally arise from the premise of the franchise and the inherent potential of either a post-Cruise continuation of the existing storyline or a complete reboot.

There’s a good argument that 28 years (the time it will have been when the eighth film releases and brings the current arcs to a close) is long enough for one continuous character and story, and that a reboot is the natural best approach.

Others would note this long period has sustained one of the greatest and most successful action franchises of all time, that the world-building and characters are so deep and rich it can survive and carry on, and that Star War and Star Trek demonstrate why you should carry forward as long as the story and brand have something new to say.

I lean toward maintaining the existing continuity since a reboot would essentially just replicated it anyway — why bother, when it’s already built and still in great shape?

Tweaks to continuity are possible and fine, if needed to position a character or story moving forward. Otherwise, there are any number of cool series, miniseries, and film spinoffs and continuations built into the M:I world right now, beyond simply the ones I mentioned earlier (which could exist regardless of whether the series reboots or keeps the current timeline going, whereas here I’m talking about series potential that only exists by maintaining the current stories and characters).

We can’t speak with assurance about who will walk away alive and who might die by the end of this era of the series, but let’s talk potential without worrying about that…

How about Ving Rhames in a miniseries about Luther’s retirement not working out as planned and getting lured into a situation requiring his expertise? Maybe he works as a private investigator-hacker for hire again, but there’s great potential here for a fun one-shot storyline.

As I mentioned earlier, the theatrical films could continue with Rebecca Ferguson in the lead role as secret agent extraordinaire Ilsa Faust, and she could work with certain returning members of Hunt’s old team sometimes but otherwise introduce her own new teammates to ensure continued expansion of the world and brand.

And since I also mentioned animation earlier, what about an anime miniseries directed by John Woo, continuing the story of Thandiwe Newton’s character Nyah Nordoff-Hall from Mission: Impossible 2?

All of that said and with my personal preference being to maintain existing continuity, there’s a lot of advantages to rebooting as well, so it’s simply a case of which set of pros and cons are best suited for the rest of the studio’s plans for the future.

But this is one of the biggest, best, and most successful action IPs in history, with its origins on TV, so regardless of whether Paramount’s plans are for a reboot or a continuation, I hope those plans include Mission: Impossible streaming series and miniseries on Paramount+.