Over 27 years of its evolution, the Tom Cruise-led Mission: Impossible has gone through several changes and has come out as one of the most promising action franchises to exist. However, the MI movies have undergone substantial transition after the third film, which is unanimously deemed the weakest in the series, and the Jeremy Renner-led sequel to MI 3 put the franchise back on track.
The entry of Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol marked the new beginning for the Cruise-led franchise and films that succeeded it cemented MI as one of the best franchises in the action landscape. Apart from Cruise, Marvel star Jeremy Renner also played a substantial part in reconstructing the action flicks, but the actor hasn’t been seen in the MI movies since 2015.
Why Jeremy Renner hasn’t returned to the Mission: Impossible franchise?
After Mission: Impossible 3‘s underwhelming reception at the box office, Mission: Impossible needed to undergo some reconstruction to avoid becoming another Hollywood franchise that has lost its essence. This resulted in Ratatouille director Brad Bird taking the franchise under his wings and would succeed in reviving the franchise with Mission: Impossible 4, marking MI’s entrance into a new era. The film comprised Jeremy Renner alongside Tom Cruise, who played the role of Ethan Hunt’s protégé, and reprised the role in Rogue Nation, but never returned in the 6th and 7th entry.
On reflecting on why this was the case, director Christopher McQuarrie explained Renner’s commitment to the MCU, and the uncertainty of MI 6 resulted in Renner’s exit. He said,
“At the time, when the movie started, we didn’t really have a screenplay, so it was very difficult for us to say who would be in the movie for how long and on what days, and he had a commitment to Marvel… It was just an unfortunate case of bad timing,”
Although it will be interesting to see if Jeremy Renner ever reprises his role in the future installments of MI following the actor’s break from the role of Hawkeye, for now, nothing can’t be said for sure.
It took Tom Cruise to convince Jeremy Renner to star in Mission: Impossible
Although Jeremy Renner has grown quite synonymous with being one of the reasons behind the franchise’s rejuvenation, the Hawkeye star initially rejected the offer of starring in MI 4. Opening up about the matter, the actor explained when he was initially offered to star in the film, there was no screenplay ready, leading to the actor declining the project. But after declining it, Cruise would manage to convince Renner into taking the gig. Renner recalled,
“And by the time I get home on my motorcycle, I get off my helmet, and the phone rings, and it’s Tom calling me at my house. I’m like, ‘That’s weird, Tom Cruise is calling me at home’…. So he’s like, ‘Are we doing this? Come on, are we doing it?’ So now all of a sudden I’m signed on to do three Mission: Impossible movies with Tom.”
Since the release of Ghost Protocol, the franchise hasn’t looked back, and even at the age of 60, the Jerry Maguire star keeps on elevating his level in order to keep the MI series fresh and entertaining.
Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol is available to stream on Paramount Plus. Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One is currently running in Cinemas.
Source: Digital Spy
