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By all accounts, Ethan Hunt is clinging on to the last plane out of town. In other words, it's expected that the character Tom Cruise has been playing since the first Mission: Impossible in 1996 will finally get some sort of sendoff in Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning, the eighth film in the blockbuster action franchise. But things are hardly ending for Tom Cruise - according to a recent interview with the A Few Good Men star, he's got some exciting future projects on the horizon... and he's digging into his past for inspiration.

That interview was one Cruise did with Australia's Today, which was subsequently reported on by Deadline. During the course of the chat, which Cruise did to promote the M:I wrapup, the actor revealed he was working on not one, but two sequels to some of his most beloved projects in years past - those being Top Gun and Days of Thunder.

"We’re thinking and talking about many different stories and what could we do and what’s possible," Cruise said, "It took me 35 years to figure out Top Gun: Maverick, so all of these things we’re working on, we’re discussing Days of Thunder and Top Gun: Maverick."

Technically, this won't be the first time that we've heard talk of a Top Gun 3; the follow-up to the massively popular Top Gun: Maverick, which saw Cruise revise his role as Capt. Pete 'Maverick' Mitchell from the original 1986 film, was first confirmed to be in development by Variety in January of 2024. Likewise, news of a Days of Thunder sequel was also reported by Variety last year, with Cruise confirmed to star later.

However, this latest quip from the two films' star is the first update we've had on the project in a while, and it's doubly interesting because of its source. You do have to wonder if part of the reason Cruise is returning to these roles is because, at 62, his days of doing his own stunts are winding down. 

Then again, it could be that the man just wants to do more stunts involving military jets and race cars.

Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning is in theaters May 23.

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