If Jeremy Renner had replaced Tom Cruise in Tom Cruise's portrayal of IMF daredevil Ethan Hunt that still captivates audiences from all over the world. With each installment, Mission: Impossible has somehow upped the ante with high octane action scenes and thrilling spy-centric storylines. However, long before Mission: Impossible became a quasi-autobiographical parable of Tom Cruise's real-life vitality, it had reached somewhat of a crossroads where Cruise was almost replaced by Jeremy Renner.
Although Paramount's plans of replacing Tom Cruise never came to fruition, Jeremy Renner did find his way into the series as agent William Brandt. Renner later reprised his role in 2015's Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation but was absent from Fallout because of his commitments to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The future movies in the Mission: Impossible franchise may make some room for his return, but that seems less likely considering how no official announcements about it have been made so far.
Renner does an incredible job at portraying the by-the-book agent William Brandt. However, whether Brandt was a worthy character to carry the entire franchise forward will never be known. Given how staying put has done wonders for Tom Cruise's acting career and the Mission: Impossible franchise, it is hard not to wonder if it would still be the same if Renner had replaced him. Here's what could have happened if Jeremy Renner had indeed replaced Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible.
When Jeremy Renner Was Going To Replace Tom Cruise In Mission: Impossible
It may be hard to imagine the Mission: Impossible franchise without Tom Cruise, but the actor was supposed to sing a swan song to Ethan Hunt after Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol and set the stage for Jeremy Renner's William Brandt as the lead character of the series. Long before Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol's filming, Tom Cruise had stirred many a controversy because of his opinions on psychiatry and his infamous couch jump at Oprah. According to many rumors and speculations, the actor's actions had negatively impacted his persona, and in turn, his relationship with Paramount Pictures, which almost led to his departure from Mission: Impossible.
How Would Ethan Hunt's Story Have Ended?
By 2008, Tom Cruise's relationship with Paramount head Sumner Redstone saw new dawn, which marked his return to the Mission: Impossible franchise. This time, however, he was apparently written off as a secondary character who would allow Jeremy Renner's William Brandt to take over the limelight by the end of the movie. Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol and Rogue Nation's cinematographer Robert Elswit confirmed this by saying that although most people involved with Ghost Protocol would avoid talking about it, Tom Cruise was supposed to loosen his grip on the franchise's overarching narrative according to the original script.
Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol's storyline was structured in a way that Ethan Hunt would get promoted to being the Impossible Missions Force's new Secretary following the previous one's death in the movie's opening scenes, and the IMF Mission unit would be led by a new agent — likely played by Jeremy Renner. When Christopher McQuarrie later became a part of the film, he made many significant changes to the script during rewrites. He ensured that Tom Cruise remained the series' leading character Ethan Hunt, and only went "on in his own lonely way" towards the - Ghost Protocol (via SyFy). These changes fell into place when many little sections of the script were shot again.
What Would Happen To Mission: Impossible's ing Characters
Just like Tom Cruise's Ethan Hunt, Simon Pegg's Benji Dunn is a prominent force that has held together many arcs of the Mission: Impossible franchise. Since his first appearance in Mission: Impossible III, he and Ethan have developed an impeccable dynamic where they wholeheartedly trust one another even when things go south. Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol also subtly implies that Benji became a field agent after being inspired by Ethan.
Without Ethan Hunt, all this development behind Benji and Ethan's chemistry would go to waste, and Benji's characterization would feel incomplete. Similarly, Tom Cruise's riveting brain-meets-brawn team-up/rivalry with Henry Cavill in Mission: Impossible - Fallout would likely never play out the way it did if Ethan Hunt was replaced with another agent. All in all, the Impossible Missions Force would seem a lot less exciting without Hunt's risk-heavy leadership.
Mission: Impossible Movies Wouldn't Be As Good Without Tom Cruise
Spanning over two decades, the Mission: Impossible franchise has grown from strength to strength with each installment, and this has only been possible because of Cruise's unrelenting commitment to pushing the franchise beyond the quintessential elements of the spy genre. After taking a myriad of risks as the first Mission: Impossible film's producer — such as hiring Brian De Palma for direction and pitting the Jim Phelps character as its villain — Tom Cruise proved that his vision exceeded all skepticism. Forgoing even his stuntmen, the star has been famously known for performing death-defying acts and sustaining severe injuries to get perfect action shots.
As established in Top Gun 2, Tom Cruise still shows no signs of slowing down and is only raising the bar with each film as though wearing Ghost Protocol's infamous electromagnetic gloves. It is this longevity that has earned him the title of one of the most legendary action heroes of the past decade and has made him the most crucial ingredient of the Mission: Impossible series. Without him, Mission: Impossible would have likely fallen into the common pitfalls of most long-running franchises that fail to reinvent themselves with time.
When Would The Mission: Impossible Franchise Have Ended Without Tom Cruise?
Since evidence trumps precept, perhaps a real movie franchise can better explain Mission: Impossible's fate with Jeremy Renner as its lead. After having a successful run with three consecutive films, the Bourne franchise was supposed to turn a new leaf with its fourth installment starring Hawkeye's Jeremy Renner. Despite being a talented actor and a bona fide action star, Renner could not make up for the franchise's breakneck change in pace and ideation.
As a standalone, The Bourne Legacy is compelling enough to keep most viewers white-knuckled throughout its runtime. However, as a franchise film, it lacks the feeling of homecoming that Matt Damon brings with his presence in the first three movies. A similar change of course for the Mission: Impossible franchise would have likely led to similar consequences. Just like Matt Damon is considered the face of the Bourne series, Tom Cruise is Mission: Impossible's key selling point. Therefore, without him, Mission: Impossible probably would not have stood the test of time and may have ended soon after Ghost Protocol.
Why Jeremy Renner Didn't Replace Tom Cruise In Mission: Impossible
Although the exact reason for Jeremy Renner not replacing Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible remains unknown, the decision reached its tipping point when Chris McQuarrie came in for Ghost Protocol's rewrites and altered its screenplay. In the initial scenes of the early script, almost everything was meant to go as depicted in the movie: Ethan's team helps him escape prison, and the IMF Secretary gets killed. Only toward the end were the changes apparent, with the screenplay featuring a big battle following which Tom Cruise's Hunt becomes the Secretary, while Renner replaces him as the series' leading agent.
Like every other long-running franchise, Mission: Impossible probably manifested a mind of its own that left no space for a different front-runner. Put simply, what Vin Diesel is to the Fast franchise, Tom Cruise is to Mission: Impossible. This could be the reason why Paramount decided to drop the idea of spinning a whole new thread to Mission: Impossible's well-established yarn. The decision has clearly worked wonders for the studio as all recent additions to the Mission: Impossible franchise have earned big box office numbers and rave reviews. Give that both Tom Cruise and Chris McQuarrie will remain the driving forces behind both Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One and Two, the franchise will continue sustaining its impressive legacy, with or without Renner.
