After director Christopher McQuarrie teased last week that he and frequent collaborator Tom Cruise were talking about doing something quite different for their first project after Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part Two wraps next year, Deadline has managed to obtain more information on the mystery project - actually, make that mystery projects.
While the second half of their two-part Mission will remain top priority until the end of 2023 (give or take), the dynamic duo are also in the very early stages of developing an original action-thriller film with franchise potential, an original song and dance-style musical, and something involving Cruise's breakout Tropic Thunder character Les Grossman.
The first two will certainly be their own films, but it's currently unclear whether the Les Grossman project would be a solo spinoff or if he could be incorporated into another movie. Either way, it sure seems like we haven't seen the last of Grossman, and Cruise seems extremely eager to get back into the fan-favorite character's shoes.
As expected, Cruise will star in and produce each of the three while McQuarrie is expected to write the scripts. It's too early to know whether he will also helm any of the projects, but we'd expect him to direct at least one of the three, presumably the original actioner.
As Top Gun: Maverick continues to reach new box office milestones by the day, Cruise is already quite busy setting an exciting slate for 2024 and beyond. He has both Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One and Part Two due out in 2023 and 2024, respectively, and is then expected to begin filming another hotly-awaited actioner next year: his mystery space project with NASA and SpaceX, which has Doug Liman directing and McQuarrie attached as a producer.