Casting for Mission: Impossible 6 is well underway with British actress Vanessa Kirby (The Crown, Everest) reportedly in final talks to join Tom Cruise, Rebecca Ferguson, Simon Pegg, and possibly Jeremy Renner.
Production Weekly has listed the untitled sequel’s working title as Gemini. This title could potentially give us some clues towards the plot of the sixth installment. Even if this production codename is only used during its shoot.
One interesting angle for writer and director Christopher McQuarrie is perhaps looking at the original source material for ideas. Gemini could be a direct reference to the 1969 Mission: Impossible episode Robot.
Here is that episode’s synopsis.
When the Premier (Pavel Zagov) of a country which is known for its position of neutrality dies. But the Deputy Premier (Gregor Kamirov) who wishes to succeed him and then push his country to an alliance with the Communists. To do that he keeps the Premier’s death a secret and finds a man who looks like the Premier whom he refers to as Gemini and he plans to use him to be the new Premier and then appoint him as his successor.
The team convinces Kamirov that another official is planning a similar coup with the help of a lookalike mechanical Zagov. Led to believe that his co-conspirators are unreliable, Kamirov takes over the alternate (IMF provided) plan which ends with him exposing his deception on national television.
Gemini could be a reference to the U.S. space program. As Project Gemini was NASA’s second human spaceflight program and there is also a TV documentary titled Mission Impossible Gemini from 1999 which focused on the space race. Gemini could easily be the name of a spy satellite or even more devious technology that could be weaponized.
Another theory could speak more towards the casting side of things. The astrological sign Gemini is represented by the twins Castor and Pollux. Perhaps, Vanessa Kirby is playing the twin sister of Rebecca Ferguson’s Ilsa Faust or will double for each other at some point. Allowing McQuarrie to incorporate elements from that episode Robot but using the leads.
While plot details are scarce we know that McQuarrie wants to tackle more of Ethan’s personal as he stated to Empire. Maybe Gemini has a closer connection to Hunt.
“I’ve seen five of these movies and I don’t know who Ethan Hunt is. One movie sort of dealt with his personal life; the other movies are about people speculating what’s really going on in Ethan’s head. I want to know who Ethan is in this movie, I want an emotional journey for this character, and Tom really embraced it.”
Australian car company Holden makes a car named Gemini, John Woo’s Mission: Impossible II took place there.
Production will take place this spring and summer with Paris seemingly locked-in as one of the film’s locations.
Mission: Impossible 6’s release date has been set for July 27th, 2018.
SOURCE: PRODUCTION WEEKLY