This news hardly comes as a surprise, but Deadline reports Tom Cruise has officially signed on to return as Ethan Hunt in Mission: Impossible 5 for Paramount Pictures, Skydance Productions and J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot. There is, however, no news on who will write and/or direct the feature or who will be back from the Brad Bird-directed fourth installment, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, which brought in $694.7 million worldwide back in 2011.
Ghost Protocol introduced Jeremy Renner to the franchise and many assumed it was an attempt to have someone else step in for Cruise to continue where the fourth film left off, but after the film’s success it would appear Hunt is back at the center of the action.
As for directors, Deadline says Cruise’s Jack Reacher director Christopher McQuarrie is the name most often heard. A director is expected to be named shortly. [Deadline]
