Everything we know about 'Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Two'

How can Tom Cruise top himself this time? "Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One" is finally here, and it features one of the action franchise's most jaw-dropping stunts yet. But it's also just the latest film this summer to end without wrapping everything up, as a second part is still to come. So what's in store for part two, and how will Cruise risk his life once again? Choose to accept your mission of reading on for more information on "Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part Two."

"Dead ​​Reckoning Part Two" will be released in June 2024

"Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part Two" will arrive in less than a year, as it's slated for June 28, 2024.

These seventh and eighth "Mission" films were announced in 2019, and though they were initially scheduled for release in 2021 and 2022, the plan was always for them to debut a year apart. Like "Part One," "Part Two" will be directed by Christopher McQuarrie. The filmmaker told Fandango that "Part Two" won't feel like a "reset," as it will continue the "escalation" from "Part One," and it "takes off right from" the start.

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Filming on "Part Two" has already started

Meeting that June 2024 release date, though, may be tricky in light of the 2023 Hollywood actors strike.

Filming on "Dead Reckoning Part Two" began in March 2022, and McQuarrie recently told Collider "we've shot all but one of our international locations" for "Part Two," and "we've shot our big action except for the biggest set piece." He added that the plan was to wrap principal photography "early next year." But according to The Hollywood Reporter, the SAG-AFTRA strike will delay when filming on "Part Two" can begin again.

In 2022, McQuarrie said on the "Light the Fuse" podcast that there were "days" of filming remaining on "Part Two," and he noted that the two movies share some of the same sets. "There's a place in 'Part One' that gets revisited in 'Part Two,'" he teased.

New cast members include Hannah Waddingham and Nick Offerman

Some stars who weren't in "Dead Reckoning Part One" will join the cast in "Part Two," including "Ted Lasso" star Hannah Waddingham. In March, McQuarrie shared a photo of her in the film, though her role hasn't been revealed.

Nick Offerman will also make his "Mission" debut in "Part Two." His character is "IMF adjacent," he teased on the "Light the Fuse" podcast. Other new cast members will include "Mindhunter" star Holt McCallany, who is reportedly playing the secretary of Defense, as well as Janet McTeer and Lucy Tulugarjuk. Rolf Saxon is also returning as William Donloe, the analyst from the Langley vault sequence in the original 1996 film. And on "Light the Fuse," McQuarrie teased that a character from "Mission: Impossible - Fallout" will return in a "delightfully unexpected way" following "an Easter egg" in "Part One." It's possible he means Angela Bassett's Erika Sloane, as a photo of her appears as an Easter egg in the first film.

It will feature an "outrageous" stunt sequence

Every "Mission" attempts to top the previous one with a jaw-dropping new stunt, and "Dead ​​Reckoning Part Two" will be no exception. "There's stuff coming in eight that is beyond anything we've done," McQuarrie told Collider, also teasing to the outlet that there's a "sidebar action sequence involving the team, which we haven't shot yet," that involves "elements that I've never worked with before."

Whatever this is, it's seemingly not in act three, as McQuarrie told the "Light the Fuse" podcast in 2022, "We have the bulk of the third act action sequence in the can for 'Part Two.' We already know what the third act of 'Part Two' is, and it's off the chain." He added that this is "one of two really big, really ambitious sequences in the movie," and the one that hadn't been shot yet is so ambitious that he still wasn't sure at the time of the interview "how, physically, to achieve it." McQuarrie also teased to Fandango that the final shot of "Part One" should "give you an indication" of what they've got cooking. So could this suggest the complicated stunt he's talking about involves having Cruise actually dive to the bottom of the ocean?

One of the big stunts that has already been shot is an aerial sequence that was filmed in South Africa. McQuarrie shared a wild photo last year of Cruise hanging off a plane during filming, and Cruise shot a promo video for CinemaCon standing on that same plane. In December 2022, he also thanked fans for the success of "Top Gun: Maverick" by skydiving while filming in South Africa. "The aerial sequence is … It's just outrageous," McQuarrie told Empire. Paramount Global CEO Bob Bakish teased that Cruise will be "walking on the outside of an airplane — in the air, not on a green screen."

According to Variety, flight scenes were shot on an aircraft carrier in the Adriatic Sea. Tom Cruise also teased on the "Light the Fuse" podcast that "Part Two" will go to the Arctic, though according to The Guardian, producers dropped an "attempt to obtain permission for dozens of helicopter landings on Svalbard" in March.

Will it be a goodbye to Ethan Hunt?

There have been mixed messages regarding whether "Part Two" will serve as Cruise's swan song in the franchise. "The plan is for the seventh and eighth films to serve as a sendoff for Cruise's Ethan Hunt character," Variety described in a 2022 report.

Despite this, McQuarrie told Fandango ahead of the "Dead Reckoning Part One" premiere that "Part Two" won't be the last "Mission" film, and there are already ideas for what happens next. So does that mean the franchise will say goodbye to Cruise but continue on with a new lead star?

Don't count on it. Cruise recently told the Sydney Morning Herald he plans to continue with the "Mission" franchise into his 80s. "I hope to keep making Mission: Impossible films until I'm [Harrison Ford's] age," he said. Who are we to doubt the living manifestation of destiny?

July 14, 2023: This article has been updated throughout.