Hayley Atwell addresses speculation on Mission: Impossible future: ‘Tom Cruise and the word final are oxymorons’

Cruise has previously said he hopes to continue making the blockbuster films for decades

Hayley Atwell has offered her thoughts on the future of action franchise Mission: Impossible, ahead of the release of the eighth installment, The Final Reckoning, this year.

Atwell stars opposite Cruise in the forthcoming film as Grace, a former thief turned IMF agent and ally to his character, Ethan Hunt.

She reprises the role after being introduced in 2023 film Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One. The films underperformed at the box office, with many attributing the disappointment to its competition with the “Barbenheimer” phenomenon of blockbuster movies Barbie and Oppenheimer.

Directed by Christopher McQuarrie, the sequel is scheduled for release on 23 May and, with an estimated budget of $400m, will be one of the most expensive films ever made.

Speaking to The Guardian, Atwell said that working with Cruise is “a delight” and described him as “very kind, very professional”.

“When I started, I was very aware of the rarefied air around him and how there is no one like him,” she said. “And there never will be because actors aren’t made like him any more.

“He is a one-man studio and, to me, very kind, very professional. And because of that, I felt I was able to try lots of different things. There was never a risk of failure or being unsafe. Tom really likes people to thrive on set.”

Tom Cruise and Hayley Atwell in ‘Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One’ (© 2023 Paramount Pictures.)

Asked to confirm that the movie will be the last in the franchise, she commented: “I mean, look, they called it The Final Reckoning.

“On the other hand, ‘Tom Cruise’ and ‘final’ are oxymorons, so I wouldn’t be surprised if he goes, ‘Wait, maybe…’ Although he has so many things that he is working on, so I can’t see how another Mission would fit into that.”

Cruise, 62, has previously said that he hopes to continue making Mission: Impossible films for decades.

In 2023, he compared the franchise to Indiana Jones, telling The Sydney Morning Herald: “Harrison Ford is a legend. I hope to still be going. I’ve got 20 years to catch up with him.”

Tom Cruise during a stunt in ‘Dead Reckoning’ (AP)

Cruise was 34 when he first took on the role of super spy Ethan Hunt in the 1996 film Mission: Impossible.

In a four-star review of Dead Reckoning, The Independent’s Clarisse Loughrey wrote: “Mission: Impossible is exactly the sort of franchise in which people simply roll their eyes when the bomb they’re trying to detonate turns out (of course!) to be a nuclear one.

“That lack of ponderousness is embedded bone-deep into Dead Reckoning, and how returning director Christopher McQuarrie chooses to operate.

Earlier this month, McQuarrie claimed that one audience member “almost had a heart attack” at a preview screening of The Final Reckoning.

The trailer for the new blockbuster features Cruise’s character being put through yet another series of jaw-dropping stunts, including scenes that take place on planes and underwater.