During the press juggernaut leading up to this Friday’s premiere of Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, star Tom Cruise has revealed plans to return to his long-running role as Ethan Hunt for the next film in the franchise.
Cruise broke the news on a Tuesday night appearance on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.
The quick turnaround is a departure for the series, which has traditionally had at least a four year lapse between installments. While Paramount, the studio behind the franchise since 1996, released no official comment, Cruise seems fired up by the prospect of another turn as Hunt:
Mission is the first film I ever produced, the very first Mission about 20 years ago. It was 20… about 19 years, and I guess maybe 20 years ago I started it… It goes like that.
It’s pretty amazing because it’s the one, I thought, if I could keep making these kinds of movies… We’re starting to work on [the sixth] now. We’ll probably start shooting it next summer.
No word has surfaced yet as to whether Rogue Nation director Christopher McQuarrie (Jack Reacher) will sign on to repeat his duties for number six, but it seems somewhat unlikely, as each of the previous installments was helmed by a different director – Brian De Palma (The Untouchables), John Woo (Face Off), JJ Abrams (Star Wars: The Force Awakens), and Brad Bird (Tommorrowland) respectively.
Mission: Impossible has been a huge hit for Paramount, having earned more than $2 billion worldwide across the first four films.