No, Glen Powell is not the next super spy Ethan Hunt.
Following a report that Tom Cruise, star of the Mission: Impossible film franchise, allegedly wanted Powell, 36, to take over as its lead, the Twisters star denied the rumor.
Calling Powell to congratulate him live during The Pat McAfee Show on Tuesday, Nov. 12, ESPN host Pat McAfee read aloud a headline sourced on X (formerly Twitter) from @TheInsneider: “Tom Cruise reportedly wants Glen Powell to replace him and lead the ‘MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE’ franchise in potential future installments.”
Powell immediately refuted the claim, quipping to McAfee, 37: “My mom would never let me do that.”
Referencing the dangerous stunts that Cruise, 62, has pulled off for seven action-packed movies, he laughed, adding, “That’s a death trap.”
Powell’s mother Cyndy has appeared in cameos in her son’s movies, playing a spy in Spy Kids 3, a lunch lady in Everybody Wants Some!! and a professor in Jack & Bobby. Joining Powell to drive motorcycles off cliffs or cling to the outside of moving airplanes, it seems, is not on their horizon.
The Hit Man actor has starred alongside Cruise in the past, playing a rival pilot in 2022’s hit Top Gun: Maverick. They are set to reunite in an upcoming sequel that was confirmed by producer Jerry Bruckheimer earlier this year.
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During a July episode of the Happy Sad Confused podcast with his Twisters costar Daisy Edgar-Jones, Powell appeared to suggest he knows when he will begin filming Top Gun 3. “I mean, I have a date,” he said of when audiences can expect the upcoming project.
Powell answered McAfee’s call from the set of his next project, the Edgar Wright-directed The Running Man. While shooting the action-packed remake of the 1987 Arnold Schwarzenegger movie, the actor will continue remote classes to finish his college degree at the University of Texas at Austin, he told IndieWire in July.
Cruise is set to reprise his role as heroic IMF agent Ethan Hunt in Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning. The franchise’s eighth installment, directed by Christopher McQuarrie, follows 2022’s Dead Reckoning Part One and will be released in theaters May 23, 2025.
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