Mission Impossible 6 To Bring Back Unexpected Characters

02/20/2017 12:52 pm EST

Long time collaborators Christopher McQuarrie and Tom Cruise united to make Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation critical and commercial success, leaving anticipation for Mission: Impossible 6 higher than ever - a rarity for a franchise that's over twenty years old.

Chris McQuarrie will be back to direct Mission: Impossible 6, and he was recently talking to Empire about (among other things) the plans for the next installment in the espionage/action franchise. Not surprisingly, he and Cruise have the challenge of upping their own work in Rogue Nation, which included an opening with Cruise doing the small stunt work of hanging on the side of a plane as it took off!

According to McQuarrie, Mission: Impossible 6 will subvert expectations and go for an "unconventional" opening, saying "It does not start with action. That was the hardest pitch of this movie." That's not to say there won't be some great action stuntwork (as is the franchise staple); McQuarrie revealed that there are some big plans - including the mention of Cruise Cruise doing some perilous stuntwork to make it happen: "I came to Tom with a picture of something and Tom looked at it and said, 'That's awesome! I want to fall off of that!' It's like, OK, I can see it on a poster, and I can see Tom falling off of it."

However, it won't just be stunts that thrill the audience, according to McQuarrie: the storyline will also intrigue, as it will go deeper than ever before into the character of Cruise's Ethan Hunt. "I've seen five of these movies and I don't know who Ethan Hunt is," McQuarrie said. "I want to know who Ethan is in this movie, I want an emotional journey for this character, and Tom really embraced it."

Finally, McQuarrie teased that Cruise won't be the only character on that journey. Rogue Nation's breakout star Rebecca Ferguson will be back as Ilsa Faust, but according to McQuarrie, there will be appearances from other franchise characters, "including people you would not expect to be back."

That last bit is a sweet tease, as the Mission: Impossible franchise is known for pulling out twists, big reveals, and even resurrections - all of which can be found in Brian De Palma's first installment. That means sky is the limit on who could show up - old friends, old foes (like Jon Voight?), it's all fair game.

NEXT: Mission: Impossible 6 Gets a Release Date

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