The mission will remain impossible to see for another year. The eighth “Mission: Impossible” film in the Tom Cruise action series, which is dropping the previously announced “Dead Reckoning Part Two” from its title, has been delayed from 2024 to 2025, as part of a sweeping shift in Paramount Pictures’ upcoming release schedule.
The direct follow-up to this July’s “Dead Reckoning Part One,” “Part Two” was initially scheduled to premiere June 28, 2024, just 11 months after its direct predecessor’s release. It will now be released May 23, 2025, almost a full year after its initial date.
The “Mission: Impossible” sequel faces the most significant delay, but it’s not the only big ticket item on Paramount’s slate to get majorly pushed back. The film takes the release date previously held by a fourth feature film spinoff of the “Spongebob Squarepants” Nickelodeon animated series. That currently untitled project will now premiere seven months later, on December 19, 2025.
In addition, “A Quiet Place: Day One,” the Lupita Nyong’o-led prequel to John Krasinski’s popular 2018 horror film, will now release three months later than its initial March 8 launch, on June 28, 2024. Krasinski himself is directing the only film to get moved up instead of back: the fantasy comedy “If” starring Ryan Reynolds, which has been upped by a week to May 17 from May 24.
The second “Dead Reckoning” installment will follow a disappointing financial performance from “Part One.” Released a week before the highly anticipated “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer,” “Dead Reckoning Part One” received positive reviews, but faced muted hype in the face of the “Barbenheimer” event. It opened to $78.4 million domestic over its first five days and also had to cede premium IMAX screens to “Oppenheimer” by its second week. The movie ultimately grossed a respectable $567.5 million, but it’s the lowest-grossing film in the franchise since the third film in 2006.
Christopher McQuarrie, who directed the past three “Mission: Impossible” movies, returns for the eighth film. Along with Cruise, series staples Ving Rhames, Henry Czerny, Simon Pegg, Vanessa Kirby, Esai Morales, Hayley Atwell, Shea Whigham, and Pom Klementieff reprise their roles throughout the series, and are joined by Janet McTeer and Hannah Waddingham. The film is a production of Paramount and Skydance.
The eighth “Mission: Impossible” was one of the films delayed in the middle of production due to the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike, which has already impacted the release dates of other studio tentpole features. Some like “Dune Part Two” moved because of uncertainty over whether actors could promote the films, and if production can’t resume soon, other 2024 films still in the works will also be unable to hit their previously announced dates.
