Paramount launched the primary trailer for writer-director Christopher McQuarrie’s Mission: Inconceivable: Useless Reckoning Half One yesterday, in an early promotional buildup to producer-star Tom Cruise’s two-part ultimate look because the blockbuster franchise’s intrepid undercover agent Ethan Hunt. Which makes it an ideal time and setup for planning a Paramount+ Mission: Inconceivable streaming sequence.
Official emblem for “Mission: Inconceivable — Useless Reckoning”
Supply: Paramount Photos
When Mission: Inconceivable – Useless Reckoning Half Two hits theaters in 2024, Cruise could have performed Ethan Hunt in all eight movies throughout a span of 28 years. That’s an amazing legacy of world-building that set the stage for quite a few different characters to proceed ahead — or backward, for some cool prequel potential — in each theatrical and streaming areas for the Mission: Inconceivable franchise.
Some are clearly extra suited to cinematic distribution, such because the persevering with adventures of Rebecca Ferguson’s Ilsa Faust, if her character survives the eighth movie and doesn’t disappear into retirement together with Cruise’s Hunt. In the meantime, different concepts would possibly work higher within the long-form strategy of a streaming sequence, together with for instance the story of Ethan’s early years of coaching for the Inconceivable Missions Drive (IMF) and his early adventures.
I’ve lengthy felt the Mission: Inconceivable sequence was a near-perfect template tonally and kinetically for a way Marvel Studios may’ve hypothetically approached an Brokers of S.H.I.E.L.D. film franchise. So it’s not exhausting to think about how a Mission: Inconceivable streaming sequence on Paramount+ may examine favorably to Marvel’s MCU sequence on Disney+, if approached with the identical stage of high quality the movies preserve (even the least-popular M:I film is best than most fashionable motion movies, and that’s not a knock on fashionable motion movies however moderately a testomony to how wonderful M:I is).
We may look to sequence like Alias, Chuck, 24, Burn Discover, Individual of Curiosity, Jack Ryan, and sure Brokers of S.H.I.E.L.D. as examples of the potential for high-concept high-quality action-espionage sequence, and few of these had the added benefit of being a worldwide recognized model proper out the gate.
Mission: Inconceivable would immediately be must-see streaming/TV. Think about having two or three M:I sequence to look at, on par with the storytelling and motion high quality of the flicks — possibly a prequel about Ethan’s coaching and early years, and maybe one other present much like the movies however following a special set of brokers (or somebody from the movie sequence spun off into their very own present) in fashionable occasions, and probably a 3rd sequence about IMF through the Chilly Struggle of the Fifties and Sixties.
These are just some apparent methods they might simply discover thrilling, distinctive approaches for increasing the M:I universe into streaming whereas the theatrical model maintains the identical stage of world IP recognition and scale. Over time, will probably be more and more apparent how a lot top-tier exploration of M:I’s world is feasible.
As soon as Cruise bows out because the lead, a virtually three-decades period will come to an finish and — just like the Marvel Cinematic Universe — usher in a brand new period that may embrace the potential to inform tales in a bigger world throughout a number of platforms to interact viewers wherever they’re. A few of these tales are finest suited to theatrical launch. And a few of these nice tales with huge potential are finest suited to streaming.
Since there may be disagreement between Cruise and Paramount concerning the 45 day theatrical window earlier than the newest M:I chapter arrives on Paramount+. Maybe the studio may strike a steadiness — no 45 day theatrical window for the movies, in trade for a great deal for streaming spinoffs which embrace Cruise’s and McQuarrie’s involvement in manufacturing at the very least within the creation and launch phases.
Cruise’s involvement within the advertising and branding of the reveals can be invaluable, and he is perhaps wanting to be hands-on with establishing the way forward for a property that’s such an enormous a part of his legacy. I’m shocked there isn’t already an animated sequence, however that’s one other avenue they need to discover.
Because the subsequent two Mission: Inconceivable movies will convey an finish to Cruise’s Ethan Hunt persona because the sequence protagonist, the potential of a complete reboot additionally exists. In that state of affairs, maybe the perfect strategy shall be to launch a live-action streaming sequence alongside a rebooted theatrical sequence, utilizing the streaming sequence the way in which Marvel at the moment makes use of their streaming reveals on Disney+ to proceed the tales from the movies, fill in different tales that happen in between, and arrange future occasions and characters for the movies.
The truth is, even a full reboot of the movie franchise would favor the concurrent growth of a number of distinctive M:I sequence which may embrace a prequel concerning the earliest Chilly Struggle days and missions of the IMF (together with for instance a youthful area operative model of some principal IMF management character within the movie sequence), a “early days in coaching and on missions” sequence about the primary character of a rebooted sequence (possibly Ethan Hunt once more), and a principal common streaming sequence set within the timeline the flicks.
That is all clearly purely simply hypothesis for enjoyable, but it surely’s additionally true that some concepts appear to naturally come up from the premise of the franchise and the inherent potential of both a post-Cruise continuation of the prevailing storyline or an entire reboot.
There’s a great argument that 28 years (the time it should have been when the eighth movie releases and brings the present arcs to an in depth) is lengthy sufficient for one steady character and story, and {that a} reboot is the pure finest strategy.
Others would word this lengthy interval has sustained one of many best and most profitable motion franchises of all time, that the world-building and characters are so deep and wealthy it could actually survive and stick with it, and that Star Struggle and Star Trek show why you must carry ahead so long as the story and model have one thing new to say.
I lean towards sustaining the prevailing continuity since a reboot would basically simply replicated it anyway — why hassle, when it’s already constructed and nonetheless in nice form?
Tweaks to continuity are doable and superb, if wanted to place a personality or story shifting ahead. In any other case, there are any variety of cool sequence, miniseries, and movie spinoffs and continuations constructed into the M:I world proper now, past merely those I discussed earlier (which may exist no matter whether or not the sequence reboots or retains the present timeline going, whereas right here I’m speaking about sequence potential that solely exists by sustaining the present tales and characters).
We will’t converse with assurance about who will stroll away alive and who would possibly die by the top of this period of the sequence, however let’s discuss potential with out worrying about that…
How about Ving Rhames in a miniseries about Luther’s retirement not figuring out as deliberate and getting lured right into a state of affairs requiring his experience? Possibly he works as a non-public investigator-hacker for rent once more, however there’s nice potential right here for a enjoyable one-shot storyline.
As I discussed earlier, the theatrical movies may proceed with Rebecca Ferguson within the lead position as undercover agent extraordinaire Ilsa Faust, and he or she may work with sure returning members of Hunt’s outdated staff typically however in any other case introduce her personal new teammates to make sure continued enlargement of the world and model.
And since I additionally talked about animation earlier, what about an anime miniseries directed by John Woo, persevering with the story of Thandiwe Newton’s character Nyah Nordoff-Corridor from Mission: Inconceivable 2?
All of that stated and with my private desire being to take care of current continuity, there’s loads of benefits to rebooting as nicely, so it’s merely a case of which set of execs and cons are finest suited to the remainder of the studio’s plans for the longer term.
However this is among the greatest, finest, and most profitable motion IPs in historical past, with its origins on TV, so no matter whether or not Paramount’s plans are for a reboot or a continuation, I hope these plans embrace Mission: Inconceivable streaming sequence and miniseries on Paramount+.
