Tom Cruise's Mission: Impossible 7 Title Changed - What This Could Mean For The Franchise

After several delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Tom Cruise and director Christopher McQuarrie debuted "Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One" in July 2023 to critical acclaim. Widely considered one of the best films in the long-running franchise, "Dead Reckoning Part One" was, unfortunately, a financial disappointment for Cruise and Paramount Pictures, grossing just $568 million worldwide – far from a franchise low but failing to usurp its 2018 predecessor's whopping $792 million haul. The film, which reportedly lost north of $25 million, received mediocre receipts thanks in part to the "Barbenheimer" phenomenon, which dominated multiplexes just a week after the Cruise production debuted.

Then, according to Deadline, one week before the flick's release on Paramount+, Paramount Pictures dropped "Part One" from the title, ostensibly making it a stand-alone. This may seem inconsequential, but it's actually a brilliant, if slightly reactionary, decision to bring more audience members on board for Ethan Hunt's next "Mission." Initially, both "Dead Reckoning" and its now-untitled sequel were set to be shot back-to-back, making them true two-parters in the same vein as "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" or "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn," but ultimately, this wasn't the case, with "Mission: Impossible 8" still in production as of publication and set to debut in May 2025, nearly two years after "Dead Reckoning."

It has long been argued that the box office crash of "Dead Reckoning" was caused not by "Barbie" and "Oppenheimer" but in part thanks to its title, which suggested to audiences that they were getting an incomplete film. While "Dead Reckoning" expertly sets up its sequel, however, it doesn't end on a cliff-hanger, making dropping "Part One" a pretty sound, albeit last-minute, decision — Paramount Pictures didn't make the change in time for the film's Blu-ray release, meaning local retailers are still selling copies with "Part One" plastered all over them.

Meanwhile, the studio confirmed in October 2023 that the "Dead Reckoning Part Two" subtitle has been dropped from the now-untitled sequel. We have no idea what that picture will be called as of publication, but thankfully, because it's still in production — and the Christopher McQuarrie-directed "Mission: Impossible" films tend to wing it most of the time — he and Tom Cruise have plenty of time to figure it out.

The titles "Dead Reckoning Part One" and "Part Two" had significant narrative implications for the "Mission: Impossible" series because they carried a sense of finality. Indeed, the two films were set to be a send-off for Ethan Hunt. However, the week before the release of "Dead Reckoning," Tom Cruise came out and said that he'd like to continue making "Mission: Impossible" films until he's as old as Harrison Ford.

With the actor having since signed a massive film deal with Warner Bros., it's unclear if that will happen. Although we don't know what Cruise and the studio will be cooking up, the deal isn't exclusive, which means that he and Paramount Pictures could still work together. At the same time, the maverick superstar and the latter studio are clearly frustrated with one another, as detailed by The Hollywood Reporter.

What's interesting is that we don't know if the "Dead Reckoning" title pivot is a Cruise or Paramount decision (or maybe it's both?), but if you dig deeper into their growing rift, as well as the financial receipts of "Dead Reckoning," it's clear that something is up and a conscious decision is being made to rebrand the latest entry in the marquee franchise. "Mission: Impossible 8" cruises into theaters in May 2025.