Glen Powell has hilarious response to rumors he will replace Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible: "That's the worst gig in town"

Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One
(Image credit: Paramount)

It looks like Glen Powell won't be taking over Mission: Impossible from Tom Cruise after all.

Following the release of the trailer for Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, which seems to set-up an ending for the long-running franchise, scooper The InSneider claimed that Cruise wanted Powell to take over from him going forwards.

But, thanks to ESPN's Pat McAfee, we now know that's not the case. "My mom would never let me do that," Powell said. "That’s the worst gig in town, everybody knows that. That’s a death trap."

Cruise notoriously does his own death-defying stunts, meaning the role of Ethan Hunt is indeed a risky one to take over. Cruise and Powell will be seen together on screen again in Top Gun 3, however. Director Joseph Kosinski and co-star Miles Teller will also be returning for more.

"I mean, I have a date," Powell revealed on the Happy Sad Confused podcast of the Top Gun threequel.

"We had preliminary stuff," producer Jerry Bruckheimer recently told 12DOVE of the film. "We're not there yet. [There's] ways to go."

As for Mission: Impossible, the trailer for the movie certainly has a feeling of finality to it, which is helped by that dramatic title. Could this be the end of the road for Ethan Hunt? Time will tell.

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning arrives on May 23, 2025, while Top Gun 3 doesn't yet have a release date. In the meantime, check out our guide to all the upcoming major movie release dates for everything else that's on the way.

Molly Edwards
Senior Entertainment Writer

I'm a Senior Entertainment Writer here at 12DOVE, covering all things film and TV for the site's Total Film and SFX sections. I previously worked on the Disney magazines team at Immediate Media, and also wrote on the CBeebies, MEGA!, and Star Wars Galaxy titles after graduating with a BA in English.