Why is Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning split into two parts?

For the first time in franchise history, the next two Mission: Impossible movies will be split into two separate features.

Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One will be released in July of 2023, while Part Two is set for release in June of 2024.

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In Part One, the seventh movie in the franchise, Ethan Hunt and the IMF team must deal with a dangerous AI and the shadowy figures behind it to prevent a nuclear disaster. Early reviews suggest Tom Cruise and director Christopher McQuarrie have hit another home run.

But, why has this particular story been split in two?

"That takes us all the way back to Rogue Nation where we discovered an emotional component to the story that we really weren’t expecting. Stuff that we thought was going to be pure exposition actually turned out to be the emotional core of the story," McQuarrie told Total Film.

READ MORE: Did you know Tom Cruise was actually fired from the Mission: Impossible franchise?

"When we went to make Fallout, I wanted to build upon that. That led to a longer movie, because you couldn’t scrimp on the action at the expense of emotion.

"So, we were fighting to get that movie down to two hours and 20 minutes. I knew I wanted to expand further in terms of the cast and in terms of the emotion of the story. I knew automatically that meant we were going to have a longer movie.

"I was hoping to make a four-hour epic and just cut it in half and everybody could have a two-hour movie, but here we are," he tells us), the decision to cut the movie into two parts for the first time ever in the franchise gave the narrative space to operate – without having to compromise."

Dead Reckoning Part One stars Cruise, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Ving Rhames, Hayley Atwell, Esai Morales, Shea Whigham, Pom Klementieff and Vanessa Kirby.

Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One trailer