We’ve occasionally made some playfully tasteless jokes about the Mission: Impossible series’ apparent disregard for human life, but it seems like that laissez-faire attitude begins and ends with Tom Cruise and his ankles. Apparently, Paramount and returning director Christopher McQuarrie are much less interested in risking the lives of literally everyone else in the cast and crew, because they just decided to suspend production on the next Mission: Impossible movie in Venice due to the spread of the coronavirus in Italy. This comes from The Hollywood Reporter, which says the country has more than 150 confirmed cases of the virus and that the government has already canceled Carnival celebrations in Venice.
Paramount released a statement about this, saying it is suspending plans for a three-week shoot in Venice and that the crew is being allowed to go home until production resumes. THR says Cruise was not in Italy yet, but it doesn’t say anything about other stars like Rebecca Ferguson, newcomer Hayley Atwell, probable villain Nicholas Hoult, or Jeremy Renner (who has not been announced as part of the cast, but he’s gotta come back at some point, right?).
Assuming this delay doesn’t severely impact the film’s release, it’s supposed to be in theaters in July of 2021 (followed by an eighth M:I in August of 2022).