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After nearly 30 years, three on-screen deaths, and at least a dozen wild stunts, Ethan Hunt and Mission: Impossible have approached some kind of end with The Final Reckoning. The question now is “what’s next?,” which has hovered over this franchise for years, and in several different ways.

Tom Cruise is the series, and throughout the years, he’s reaffirmed his commitment to these movies until his heart stops beating. Longtime fans know some of this served as a direct statement to Paramount: after Jeremy Renner was cast as William Brandt for Ghost Protocol, rumors began to swirl he’d take over as the series’ lead if (or, if the studio had its way, when) Cruise opted to retire from the franchise. That never materialized, but from Ghost and onward, Cruise has had another star on hand as a co-lead, including Rebecca Ferguson’s Ilsa Faust (introduced in Rogue Nation), Hayley Atwell’s Grace (Dead Reckoning), and Henry Cavill’s August Walker (Fallout).

All four actors—even Cavill, at least until Walker’s villain reveal—have felt like Mission: Impossible taking some kind of stab at getting audiences on board with possible candidates to step in for an aging Cruise. Each have been introduced as a foil or mirror to Ethan and get at least one stunt or action scene to make a case for themselves as a potential new lead. Whether that’s been the writers’ direct intent or not, the chances of a new protagonist coming in feel likely, even if it means some splitting the difference, like having them handle shootouts and fist fights while Ethan continues to pull off death-defying stunts, something Final Reckoning already does.

After Ethan brings his latest team together, he splits off from them to basically perform the much-advertised deep sea stunt to investigate a shipwrecked submarine while his friends go to St. Matthew’s Island and fight against Russian special forces. This is a series of movies that continually builds upon its predecessors, so it stands to reason this could be the way forward if Cruise is adamant about leading these films until his own body dictates he can’t.

Alternatively, Cruise now has a deal to develop and produce films for Warner Bros., including a film with Alejandro González Iñàrritu and potentially an Edge of Tomorrow sequel. If he allowed it, Paramount could potentially keep Mission: Impossible going without him for a movie or two so audiences have time to miss Ethan while getting invested in a new or returning set of characters. Then, it can be a proper event when Ethan returns, giving Cruise and the studio a legacy sequel potentially as momentous as Top Gun: Maverick was just a few years ago.

Failing that, we may get a new crop of action spy movies over the next few years, similar to the woman-fronted ones that tried to fill the empty space left by a nonexistent Black Widow movie until 2021. Mission is among the last of the genre’s big franchises—the others being Jason Bourne and James Bond, both of which possibly have new films in the works, but nothing concrete as of yet. (Fast & Furious orbits the same area, but not quite the same way, and that next movie is currently TBD.) With such a vacuum, any actor or director could arguably come and make a name for themselves.

Already, several actors seem to have been bitten by the action bug lately: following his directorial debut with last year’s Monkey Man, Dev Patel’s next project is the medieval action-thriller The Peasant. Simu Liu has his eyes on a Sleeping Dogs movie that’ll put his Shang-Chi training to good use, and in the most interesting of developments, Florence Pugh convinced Disney to let her jump off a skyscraper for a stunt in Marvel’s current hit Thunderbolts.

That film’s focus on practical work, and Pugh’s determination to do it, speaks to a hunger among the current crop of stars to really get their hands dirty and do actual physical work. Cruise has advocated for younger actors to make themselves viable for such work and study old movies, even going so far as to create separate boot camps for his respective Final Reckoning and Top Gun: Maverick costars. A focus on practical work has been one of Mission’s greatest strengths, and a number of actors, like Pom Klementieff, seem to be taking Cruise’s ideas and insights to heart. Audiences also seem to be more than willing to check out a movie in theaters if it looks worthwhile and real, which action movies tend to excel at. Whether studios will let that happen, and give actors and creatives the opportunities to provide those tactile, very real thrills, is another matter entirely.

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.

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