Tom Cruise, who has been the face of one of Hollywood’s most successful action franchises for almost 30 years, looks well-suited for a new spy thriller. The actor, who is said to have turned a page in a big way in the ‘Mission: Impossible’ series, is now in advanced talks to portray an original espionage movie ‘Doppelgänger’. It’s not official, but industry sources indicate that Cruise is now seriously considering the project, which would follow ‘Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning’ (2025).
The notion of Cruise leaving behind Ethan Hunt seems unimaginable to those who have seen his career. It’s been almost three decades since Brian De Palma’s 1996 original and he’s been that character for all this time. However, as he has developed both as a performer and a producer, there’s something there that makes it feel like he is seeking an exciting new project in a genre he passionately enjoys. The vague hints of discussion about ‘Doppelgänger’ indicate just that: a desire to try espionage in a different way, without the benefit of a longstanding character.
TheInSneider’s report says that Cruise is talking to writer Aneesh Chaganty about the project. According to several sources, Chaganty has been travelling to Florida to meet with Cruise several times to have his final say on whether to officially commit to the project or not, and for now, he is said to be “loosely attached.”
This degree of engagement is not unexpected to anyone who knows Cruise. He is famed for his hands-on, not only in front of the camera, approach to cinema. If Chaganty is scripting a rewrite specifically for Cruise, you realize just how seriously these talks are being taken. As previously reported by Deadline, Skydance already acquired the rights to the project in June 2025. Now it’s up to whether or not the script gets him going enough to make the move.
The story in ‘Doppelgänger’ is actually the interesting part. This story is more about the psychological paranoia and identity crisis that is not a thing we see in the simple action of Ethan Hunt. If Cruise joins on, he will be playing a CIA agent named Veer, whose life is turned upside down when he learns that Russia has recruited a man looking exactly like him. This doppelgänger will be used to infiltrate Veer’s world from the inside, serving as a mole. But it gets even stranger when there’s evidence that there’s more than one Veer lookalike out there.
From that out there’s a lot of story you can tell. You can visualize Cruise playing not only the hunted agent, but also the other side, maybe several versions, each with their own agenda and allegiances. It’s the type of role that would give him a chance to transcend his heroic escapades and go into something that’s more dark and cerebral. Deadline had earlier called the film “two very meaty lead roles for an actor and actress” which essentially means that the person who is playing opposite Cruise will have as much to do.
Many of the concerns around identity, surveillance and misinformation are real concerns, and it’s how this project is highlighting them that makes it so resonant. A story about a CIA agent being attacked by a physical and psychological duplicate seems less like science fiction and more like a story from tomorrow’s news. Films like ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’ and even Cruise’s own ‘Edge of Tomorrow’ have been successful with that sort of grounded, yet high-concept approach and it seems this is where that is happening here.
Cruise already has other stuff scheduled as well, such as a film called ‘Digger’ later this year, but that isn’t a spy film. ‘Doppelgänger’, therefore, is a rehashing of familiar ground, but a vastly different tone. The fact that the film is being produced by Ryan Coogler, Zinzi Coogler, Sev Ohanian, Chaganty and Natal Qasabian is another layer of credibility. Even as a producer, Coogler is lending his name to it, so it isn’t some action car in the vein of The Departed or The Lord of the Rings, but something that has real dramatic aspirations.
However, there are good concerns on whether or not this will be a project that is actually going to proceed. Cruise has been known to be picky and once has even passed over successful projects when the script was not up to his standards. That good sign is that Chaganty is actively going through the process to iron out Cruise’s notes, but the final choice will be on what that new script does, not what it was. Further, viewers have been accustomed to a certain size in Cruise action films, involving real stunts, locations around the world and death-defying set pieces. ‘Doppelgänger’ is more personal and psychological sounding. Whether it thrills his followers or frustrates them more remains to be seen.
