Edgar Wright has revealed why he turned down directing Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol.
Speaking with Josh Horowitz on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World’s Wright explained why he opted not to direct the fourth movie in the Mission: Impossible franchise.
“It was literally like a timing thing,” Wright said. “To do it, I would have to have not done the press for Scott Pilgrim.”
Edgar Wright didn’t want to be the one to ruin Mission: Impossible
Wright continued, “Sometimes if you love a series, you almost don’t want to be the thing that could possibly f—k it up, you know what I mean? I love the Mission: Impossible series. I don’t regret passing on that because Brad Bird’s film was f—king great. And I loved it. I was there on opening day to see it and I didn’t ever sit there thinking, ‘I could’ve done that.’ I was thinking, ‘This is great.’ I’ve had that a number of times in my career, where I’ve been asked to do episodes of my favorite TV shows. Part of me, in the back of my head, is thinking, ‘This show has existed really well without me for this long, so it’s not going to die without me.’”
Following Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Wright went on to direct The World’s End in 2013, Baby Driver in 2017, and The Sparks Brothers and Last Night in Soho in 2021. He was also attached to direct Marvel Studios’ Ant-Man for a number of years but left the project in 2014 due to creative differences.
Directed by Bird, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol stars Tom Cruise, Jeremy Renner, Simon Pegg, and Paula Patton.
There have since been three additional movies in the Mission: Impossible franchise following Ghost Protocol, including 2015’s Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, 2018’s Mission: Impossible – Fallout, and 2023’s Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One. An eighth Mission: Impossible movie is in the works and is currently scheduled to release in May 2025.
