Tom Cruise's 'Top Gun: Maverick' and 'Mission: Impossible 7' Delayed Again amid COVID-19 Concerns

Tom Cruise's next two movies will now open four months apart next summer

Photo: Andrew Toth/FilmMagic

Tom Cruise's next two highly-anticipated movies are being delayed again due to the Delta surge in the continuing COVID-19 health crisis.

Top Gun: Maverick and Mission: Impossible 7 will now premiere within months of each other next year.

Maverick will open on May 27, 2022, and the latest Mission: Impossible will hit theaters on Sept. 30, 2022. The Hollywood Reporter first reported the story.

The seventh Mission was previously set for that Memorial Day weekend date, but Maverick's latest move has taken over the prime box office window.

Maverick was originally set for a June 24, 2020 opening but was shifted back to December 23, 2020, due to the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. It later had release dates set for July 2, 2021, and, most recently, November 19, 2021.

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Mission, on the other hand, was first delayed from July 23, 2021, to November 19 before Maverick took over that spot and pushed it to May 27, 2022. It now lands four months after Maverick's premiere.

Cruise, 58, has been hard at work on filming the upcoming installments in the Mission: Impossible franchise while strictly following COVID-19 protocol on set.

In December 2020, leaked audio of the star yelling at two crew members for reportedly violating COVID-19 precautions during the filming of Mission: Impossible 7 surprised those who listened.

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Production sources told PEOPLE at the time Cruise was feeling the pressure of making back-to-back blockbusters amid the pandemic.

"It's hard to [describe] how incredibly intense and focused he is on making every movie the absolute best possible," a U.K.-based production source of Cruise said. "The Mission: Impossible movies are very special to him. They are 'his' movies. Tom helped set up the COVID protocol. Of course, he takes it personally when the protocol is broken."

"In all the years of filming the Mission: Impossible franchise, no one has ever even heard Tom raise his voice," added the source. "He is usually just laser-focused on filming. This movie is very different though. He has to film while making sure everyone stays safe."

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