Recently, the ‘Mission: Impossible’-focused podcast, Light the Fuse (co-hosted by The Playlist contributor Drew Taylor), recently recorded its 100th episode. And to mark the milestone, the podcast invited a number of “Mission: Impossible” folks to speak about the status of the film franchise and what the future holds. And on the podcast, folks such as writer-director Christopher McQuarrie, stars Simon Pegg and Hayley Atwell, and composer Lorne Balfe stopped by to discuss all things ‘M:I.’
One of the stories discussed occurred when McQuarrie discussed how plans have changed with the “Mission: Impossible” films over the years, including when he joined the production of ‘Ghost Protocol’ (he had an uncredited rewrite of the film) and “10 weeks into filming blew up the entire movie.”
The situation began when it was clear that the filmmaker had to cut the culmination of the story arc for Pegg’s Benji character. This led to the filmmaker working on a new scene that would have Pegg’s character kill the bad guy instead of giving that moment to Jeremy Renner’s character, William Brandt. Even though the studio was clearly hoping that Renner’s Brandt would take over as one of the leads of the franchise moving forward.
“I went into the room and knew this was one idea too many,” said McQuarrie about his meeting with the studio about the change. “I pitched the whole ending [with Renner killing the bad guy], got them all excited about it…And I knew one other person in the room loved father/son stories. And I started pitching [Benji] killing this guy to save Renner as a sort of father/son story between [Benji] and Ethan…I totally pitched it as an evolution of the character, that Benji grows up by committing murder.”
Of course, the studio was sold on the idea and that’s what happened in the film. And perhaps, that’s one of the first signs that Renner’s character wasn’t going to stick around like originally planned.
As for the new films, McQuarrie stopped short of calling actress Hayley Atwell’s mysterious new character the villain of the next two films, but did say that her character is a “destructive force of nature” that the IMF agents will have to confront. And while it was speculated and partially assumed, the filmmaker also confirmed that cast members Rebecca Ferguson, Ving Rhames, and Vanessa Kirby will not only be back for the seventh film but also will return for the eighth (and presumably final) ‘Impossible’ mission.
Another confirmation came on the music front, with McQuarrie also dropping the news that composer Lorne Balfe will write the music for both sequels. The composer worked on the sixth film in the franchise, ‘Fallout,’ and will next have music featured in the upcoming Marvel Studios film, “Black Widow,” where he replaced Alexandre Desplat.
There’s so much more in the full two-and-a-half-hour discussion on Light the Fuse, which you can listen to below. “Mission: Impossible 7” is expected to arrive in theaters on November 19. 2021.