The fate of Tom Cruise's Ethan Hunt has been a major question going into updates about Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning confirmed the new title.

Regardless of the title change, characters of Mission: Impossible 8's cast, with audiences questioning who will make it out of the film alive. From the fate of Simon Pegg's Benji Dunn to the potential death of Ving Rhames' Luther Stickell, it is unclear which of the franchise's beloved heroes will survive. Perhaps the most theorized character death is Tom Cruise's Ethan Hunt, but an earlier installment in the franchise may already have revealed his fate.

Ethan Hunt Must Survive In Final Reckoning After Ghost Protocol Failed To Replace Him

The Franchise May Already Have Tried To Replace Tom Cruise

The installment in question is Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol. Upon the film's release and the story it told, many assumed that Jeremy Renner's William Brandt was being set up as the long-term replacement for Tom Cruise should the latter actor depart the franchise. Although this has been somewhat debunked by the actors involved, it is the long-held belief of the audience and industry insiders that Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol was looking to usher the franchise away from Cruise's Hunt to a new hero altogether.

Evidently, this potential plan did not come to fruition. Since the film was released in 2011, Cruise has gone on to star in four more Mission: Impossible movies when counting 2025's The Final Reckoning. The undeniable talent Cruise has for epic, over-the-top stunts, his chemistry with the rest of the cast, and his lovable performance as Hunt proved somewhat irreplaceable, with Renner's character even being absent from the franchise since Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation.

Replacing Cruise would be much more difficult to justify now, with the franchise riding high on its decade-long hot streak, than it was in 2011...

With all this being said, it is likely that Cruise's Hunt survives Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning. It would arguably be even more difficult for the franchise to replace Hunt as the face of the series due to the immense critical and audience acclaim it has received since Ghost Protocol. That film and its sequels - Rogue Nation, Fallout, and Dead Reckoning - are regarded as the best-ranked Mission: Impossible films. As such, replacing Cruise would be much more difficult to justify now, with the franchise riding high on its decade-long hot streak, than it was in 2011.

M: I – The Final Reckoning Is Not The End Of The Franchise (As Far As We Know It)

Ethan Hunt's Survival Makes More Sense If The Series Is To Continue

For years, there has been much discussion and speculation over whether Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning will end the franchise. Reportedly, Paramount wished to market the film as such when the seventh and eighth installments were confirmed, yet Cruise refused this idea. Regardless, the marketing for The Final Reckoning seems to imply it is the last entry, from the titular finality to Cruise's Ethan Hunt asking his team to trust him "one last time." Despite all this, no official confirmation has been given to suggest that M:I 8 is the last movie we will see in the series.

The Final Reckoning Killing Off Ethan Would Only Spark Uncertainty About The Franchise

Ethan's Fate Would Place The Franchise In An Interesting Situation

Should Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning actually kill Ethan Hunt, the situation would be ittedly intriguing. On one side, the death could be seen as signifying the end of the franchise, as Cruise and his character have been the face of it for almost 30 years. Killing Hunt would be a logical endpoint, not to mention an emotionally and narratively satisfying one. On the other hand, though, some audiences may have difficulty buying that Cruise's Hunt is actually dead, thus throwing the franchise into future uncertainty.

A case of this happening in recent years is the John Wick franchise. John Wick: Chapter 4 killed off Keanu Reeves' titular character, but that did not stop endless theories that he was somehow still alive. Many had trouble accepting that the John Wick series is over, with questions and queries about John Wick 5's story becoming more prevalent than ever. If Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning kills off Cruise's Ethan Hunt, the franchise may suffer a similar period of uncertainty, and that is without the difficult task of replacing Hunt, which the franchise has failed to accomplish in the past.