Mission: Impossible Star Says Paramount Tried to Replace Tom Cruise With a Marvel Star

Here is a fun one: there was a real moment when Paramount kicked around the idea of Mission: Impossible without Tom Cruise. Not as a rumor, not as a what if. According to Simon Pegg, the studio actually scoped out a handoff to Jeremy Renner. Yes, that Jeremy Renner, fresh off The Hurt Locker and gearing up in the Marvel machine. Let me break down how that almost happened and how Cruise shut it down.

The setup: why the studio got cold feet

Late 2000s Tom Cruise was still a box office wrecking ball, but his public persona had taken a beating. The Oprah couch jump was everywhere, and his back-and-forth on the Today Show about psychiatry set off alarm bells with suits who hate unpredictability. That vibe bled into early Mission planning. Pegg says that on Rob Lowe's podcast Literally!, execs at Paramount were actively workshopping a future where Cruise was no longer the center of the franchise.

The plan to sideline Ethan Hunt

Early drafts of Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol reportedly benched Ethan with a leg injury. The idea was to move him into an IMF desk job while introducing a new field lead: Jeremy Renner as William Brandt. If that version had stuck, Cruise would have stayed in the movies but as the mentor-administrator, with Renner stepping in as the new action driver. And to be fair to the studio, Renner in that moment looked like a safe bet: Oscar nominee, The Hurt Locker heat, and a rising Marvel presence.

Cruise hears the chatter and moves fast

This is the part that feels very Tom Cruise. Per Pegg, Cruise flew from Vancouver to Los Angeles, found Paramount chairman Brad Grey at a party, and killed the replacement idea face to face. Then he brought in a writer he trusted, Christopher McQuarrie, to rework Ghost Protocol so Ethan was not limping to a desk but sprinting up the Burj Khalifa. The shift was clear: this was still Cruise's show.

The result: a course correction that stuck

Ghost Protocol exploded, became a franchise high point, and set the tone for everything that followed. McQuarrie stuck around too, not just as a fixer but as the creative partner driving Rogue Nation, Fallout, and Dead Reckoning Part One. The Renner-takes-over plan got shelved, and Cruise kept doing the thing only he seems willing to do: front the wildest stunts and keep Ethan Hunt fully in the field.

• Late 2000s: Cruise's image wobbles after the Oprah couch moment and Today Show comments.
• Ghost Protocol development: early drafts reportedly bench Ethan with a leg injury, shifting him to desk duty.
• Paramount eyes a baton pass: Jeremy Renner's William Brandt is positioned to become the new lead.
• Cruise intervenes: flies from Vancouver to LA, confronts Paramount's Brad Grey, and brings in Christopher McQuarrie to rework the film.
• 2011: Ghost Protocol hits big, re-centers Ethan as the unstoppable field agent; the Cruise-McQuarrie partnership drives the next run of films.

Where things stand now

That near-swap is a great peek behind the scenes at how close franchises can come to swerving. Instead, Cruise doubled down and turned Mission into an even bigger machine. And yes, if you want a rewatch, the Mission: Impossible movies are currently streaming on Paramount+ in the US.