Glen Powell has hilarious response to rumors he will replace Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible: "That's the worst gig in town"

Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One
(Image credit: Paramount)

It looks like Glen Powell won't be taking over Mission: Impossible from Tom Cruise after all.

Following the release of the trailer for Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, which seems to set-up an ending for the long-running franchise, scooper The InSneider claimed that Cruise wanted Powell to take over from him going forwards.

But, thanks to ESPN's Pat McAfee, we now know that's not the case. "My mom would never let me do that," Powell said. "That’s the worst gig in town, everybody knows that. That’s a death trap."

Cruise notoriously does his own death-defying stunts, meaning the role of Ethan Hunt is indeed a risky one to take over. Cruise and Powell will be seen together on screen again in Top Gun 3, however. Director Joseph Kosinski and co-star Miles Teller will also be returning for more.

"I mean, I have a date," Powell revealed on the Happy Sad Confused podcast of the Top Gun threequel.

"We had preliminary stuff," producer Jerry Bruckheimer recently told GamesRadar+ of the film. "We're not there yet. [There's] ways to go."

As for Mission: Impossible, the trailer for the movie certainly has a feeling of finality to it, which is helped by that dramatic title. Could this be the end of the road for Ethan Hunt? Time will tell.

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning arrives on May 23, 2025, while Top Gun 3 doesn't yet have a release date. In the meantime, check out our guide to all the upcoming major movie release dates for everything else that's on the way.

Molly Edwards
Senior Entertainment Writer

I'm a Senior Entertainment Writer here at GamesRadar+, covering all things film and TV for the site's Total Film and SFX sections. I previously worked on the Disney magazines team at Immediate Media, and also wrote on the CBeebies, MEGA!, and Star Wars Galaxy titles after graduating with a BA in English. 

Read more
Simon Pegg and Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning
No one knows for sure if Final Reckoning is Tom Cruise's last ever Mission: Impossible movie, but the director teases the title is "appropriate"
Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt in Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning
Tom Cruise risked suffocation in the most "challenging" and "terrifying" Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning stunt
Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt in Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning
Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning trailer sees Tom Cruise's Ethan Hunt embark on his most dangerous mission yet
Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt in Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning
Mission: Impossible 8 release date, cast, trailer, and plot
Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt in Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning
Tom Cruise says he had to "train himself to breathe" for intense Mission: Impossible 8 stunts: "There were times I would pass out physically"
Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt in Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning
Mission: Impossible 8 director says the latest movie features "the most difficult thing we've ever done" – and it's got the perfect first reaction from an early screening: "I almost had a heart attack"
Latest in Action Movies
Jason Momoa next to Lobo
Jason Momoa has gone method taking on the role of Lobo: "I asked everybody to call me by my character's name"
Avengers: Doomsday directors admit it's a "difficult" movie to make but tease some great Marvel collaborators "old and new"
Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom
The Russo Brothers say Robert Downey Jr. "tried to talk us into" doing another Avengers movie but they "said no" until they heard the pitch for Doomsday: "That story has to be told"
No Time to Die
Harry Potter and Spider-Man producers reportedly in talks to develop new James Bond movie
Amanda Seyfried in Mamma Mia!
Mean Girls star Amanda Seyfried was offered the role of Gamora in the MCU, but turned it down because she thought Guardians of the Galaxy would be "Marvel's first bomb"
Robert Downey Jr. during the Doctor Doom announcement at Marvel's SDCC 2024 panel
Kevin Feige was behind the decision to bring Robert Downey Jr. in as Doctor Doom, and the conversation was had "a while ago"
Latest in News
A screenshot from MindsEye showing a character leaning out of a car, shooting another car with a gun.
GTA veteran says the games industry needs to "get smarter" about what people actually want: "There are so many games, and I think we're starting to feel the effects"
Posing with a rifle in the Fallout 76 Ghoul update
Fallout 76's art director "had to fight really hard" so Bethesda would make the MMO's map bigger than Skyrim's
Minecraft movie image of Jack Black as steve
Don't expect Minecraft to go free-to-play anytime soon, as Mojang says "It doesn't really work with the way we built it"
Yasuke looking over the water to a shrine during sunset in Assassin's Creed Shadows
Assassin's Creed Shadows has an entire island stuffed with adorable kittens you need to check out, and it's based on an actual Japanese cat paradise
phase zero key art showing zombies in a hallway
Former Witcher 3 and Dying Light devs reveal their Resident Evil homage, complete with PS1-style fixed cameras
Shadow of Mordor's Nemesis System was only created because WB Games wanted something to combat Batman Arkham Asylum's second-hand sales, exec says