Throughout the last 3 decades, Mission: Impossible has cemented itself as one of the most successful action franchises of all time, and unlike most long-running franchises, it hasn’t got stale. Ever since the 2010s, each entry in the Tom Cruise-led franchise has been successful in providing fresh and unique experiences, which isn’t pretty common with other major long-running movie series.
But before rising to the top, the Mission: Impossible series found itself in a difficult position after the underwhelming response to the second entry in the franchise. This resulted in the series heading in a new direction, thus washing off initial plans for the threequel, which resulted in the exclusion of many big names.
Tom Cruise’s adamancy to get J.J. Abrams resulted in Oppenheimer star’s exit
Before J.J. Abrams was brought into the mix to lead the third movie, Joe Carnahan almost landed the keys to Mission: Impossible 3 and even assembled the cast for his story. This involved pretty big names, including Scarlett Johansson, and Kenneth Branagh, who was cast to play the main antagonist in the film. But after Carnahan’s departure, Abrams brought his own vision to this action franchise.
But considering Cruise decided to wait for Abram’s schedule to get clear, by the time he arrived, big names, including Oppenheimer star Kenneth Branagh, and Johansson, departed due to scheduling conflicts.
However, the end product wasn’t bad, as the late Phillip Seymour Hoffman, who replaced Branagh as the main antagonist for the threequel, is widely deemed as the best villain in the franchise.
Mission: Impossible 3 is one of the most important entries in the franchise
Although Ghost Protocol marked the beginning of a new era for MI, Mission: Impossible 3 is often overlooked, as it might be one of the most important entries in the entire franchise. The movie not only presented arguably the best villain in the movie series, who succeeds in disturbing Tom Cruise‘s Ethan Hunt on a personal level, but it also set the tone for the MI universe moving forward.
Even though it didn’t succeed in bringing in huge numbers like its successors following the controversy that surrounded Tom Cruise at the time, it was still a pretty standard Mi movie.
With Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One raking in huge numbers at the box office, the MI franchise is not looking to slow down anytime soon. And considering Scarlett Johansson has too showcased her interest in working with the actor, fans will hope both Johansson and Kenneth Branagh get an opportunity to star in MI moving forward.
Mission: Impossible III is available to stream on Paramount Plus.