Earlier this week, Mission: Impossible 6 was forced to go on hiatus after Tom Cruise injured himself while performing a stunt. The star broke his ankle and production has shut down for nine weeks in order to let Cruise recover and get back into shape. Mission: Impossible 6 was originally slated for a July 2018 release date, but given this new development, people were unsure how the film could still arrive on time. It's enough to make anyone worry, but it might not be as bad as everyone thought. Director Christopher McQuarrie is keeping it cool, and he doesn't think the film will be delayed just yet.
This is not entirely new territory for us. This is the same team that pulled Rogue Nation up five months. We're not presently facing that kind of pressure here. In order to keep the release date, I will edit now instead of later. When Tom has made a full recovery, we'll resume shooting and I'll have that much less to fine cut on the back end.
Your star breaking his ankle is a pretty big deal, but Christopher McQuarrie is downplaying the hiatus and stresses that he won't just be twiddling his thumbs for nine weeks. While Tom Cruise is recovering, McQuarrie will be making up for lost time by editing the footage they do have. That way, there will be less to do after filming is completed, and the movie could still feasibly make its release date in less than a year. This sounds like a sound strategy, and it should make up for some of the time production is losing after Cruise's injury.
In fact, Christopher McQuarrie thinks they had a rougher deadline for Mission: Impossible- Rogue Nation. McQuarrie's first M:I film was only completed days before the premiere. The same crew that worked on Rouge Nation is back for M:I 6, so they are used to handling the pressure. However, McQuarrie told Deadline that they have a lot more time to finish the movie than they did last time.
The perception seems to be that we were originally scheduled to complete the film close to the release date. While that was the case with Rogue Nation, which was completed just days before the premiere, that's not the case here. We have the time we need and, barring the unforeseen, we remain on target for July 2018.
While Tom Cruise's injury isn't a non-issue, it sounds like the director is still pretty confident that the sixth Mission: Impossible will still make it on time for its release date. The studio hasn't made any announcements about delays yet, so for the time being everything is still on track for the July 2018 release date. It's obviously not an ideal situation, but hopefully, Cruise makes a speedy recovery and the rest of production runs smoothly.
