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Posted in: Movies, Paramount Pictures | Tagged: mission impossible, mission: impossible - dead reckoning, Rebecca Ferguson
Rebecca Ferguson Clears The Air About Departing Mission: Impossible
Rebecca Ferguson has cleared the air about her departure from the Mission: Impossible franchise and if we'll ever see Isla return.
Article Summary
- Rebecca Ferguson exits Mission: Impossible, explaining contract end and creative decisions.
- Ferguson chose not to renew her contract, seeking diverse roles beyond Ilsa Faust.
- The actress expresses a desire for her character to explore a darker narrative path.
- Ferguson's departure raises questions about the impact of her character's on-screen death.
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning was a miss for the franchise in several ways. The movie, which here we called the "COVID canary in the coal mine" because it was the first major production that got shut down by the virus, had a rough time getting to the big screen. However, even without the virus, these movies are massive undertakings that require a ton of work and commitment from the cast and crew. The film was a huge undertaking, and the next one is still in production when they were supposed to be shot back to back. The other thing Dead Reckoning managed to do was fridge the same female character twice in the same film. Rebecca Ferguson joined the world of Mission: Impossible in the fifth film and has become a fan favorite character ever since. At the beginning of the film, there is a fake-out about her death, and then, in the second act, they actually kill her. Many were upset about this because it seemed like the film replaced one badass brunette with another [all the love in the world to Hayley Atwell].
It seemed like a creative decision that no one could wrap their heads around, but Ferguson explained to Entertainment Tonight (via Collider) that it came from a straightforward place; her contract was up, and she didn't want to renew. She said, "Well, I mean, sometimes those three-picture deals you have in Hollywood, they end, and actors have the possibility of saying no. And we were at that point." She went on to explain the massive dedication that the franchise requires; she wasn't pleased with the direction that Isla was heading and more time to do more projects.
"Mission is such a huge dedication, and I've done it now, and it's fantastic," she continued. "And it's amazing, and McQ and Tom wrote this incredible character. There's just that much you can do with a character, I find, and I'm entitled to my own opinion on this, too. I want her to go rogue. I'm interested in the dark side; I don't want to be a team member, I'm not interested in that. And I felt like that was where we were headed. It takes a long time to make Mission, too. It is blood, sweat, and tears doing those. Since I finished, I've done a TV show and two movies, and they're still doing [the same] Mission. But, you never know."
Perhaps Isla will return in a smaller role or flashbacks, as the interviewer at Entertainment Tonight suggested. Still, Ferguson seems ready to move on from this highly demanding franchise, and we don't really blame her. I personally wish there was a better way for Isla to leave the story that didn't make her death feel like it only happened for the sake of furthering Ethan's story and manpain. While it might have been Ferguson's decision to leave, that writing decision is still weak and hurts the overall film.
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning: Cast, Summary, Release Date
In Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning, Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his IMF team embark on their most dangerous mission yet: To track down a terrifying new weapon that threatens all of humanity before it falls into the wrong hands. With control of the future and the fate of the world at stake and dark forces from Ethan's past closing in, a deadly race around the globe begins. Confronted by a mysterious, all-powerful enemy, Ethan is forced to consider that nothing can matter more than his mission – not even the lives of those he cares about most.
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning, directed by Christopher McQuarrie, stars Tom Cruise, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Vanessa Kirby, Hayley Atwell, Shea Whigham, Pom Klementieff, Esai Morales, Henry Czerny, Rob Delaney, Cary Elwes, Indira Varma, Mark Gatiss, Charles Parnell, Greg Tarzan Davis, and Frederick Schmidt. Produced by Tom Cruise and Christopher McQuarrie and executive produced by David Ellison, Dana Goldberg, Don Granger, and Tommy Gormley. It was released on July 12, 2023. Mission: Impossible 8 will be released on May 23, 2025.
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