At one point, Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part 1 was going to feature a flashback sequence early on that included de-aging Tom Cruise to portray a young Ethan Hunt. But that plan was ultimately put on ice after director Christopher McQuarrie determined it would be too distracting–at least for now.
Speaking with GamesRadar, McQuarrie opened up about a 1989 sequence for Mission: Impossible 7 that “we talked about it as a cold open, we talked about it as flashbacks in the movie, we looked at de-aging.” But apparently that key last part–de-aging–made the filmmaker nix the whole thing.
“One of the big things about [the de-aging] I was looking at while researching, I kept saying, ‘Boy, this de-aging is really good’ or ‘This de-aging is not so good,'” McQuarrie said. “Never did I find myself actually following the story.”