Tom Cruise might have wrapped up his globe-trotting days as Ethan Hunt, but don’t think for a second he’s about to slow down and start playing grumpy dads in indie dramas. The man is still addicted to high-stakes sci-fi and death-defying stunts. He and director Doug Liman are finally moving ahead with the sequel to 2014’s Edge of Tomorrow. According to the latest Production Weekly (via World of Reel), cameras are set to roll in late 2026, with Cruise and Emily Blunt both returning to finish what they started.
The journey here has been messy. Cruise was supposed to shoot Liman’s Deeper alongside Ana de Armas this August, but the film hit financing troubles. Instead of waiting around, Cruise and Liman pivoted back to the project fans have been screaming for: Edge of Tomorrow 2. As Liman told Empire, “Tom and I just actually rewatched it about two months ago, because I hadn’t seen it in 10 years. I was like, ‘Wow, that is a really good movie.’” It seems Warner Bros. agrees. CEO David Zaslav has been pushing Cruise to prioritize the sequel, partly because it’s the only Cruise-led franchise the studio still controls.
If you’ve ever wondered why this sequel has taken so long, blame Cruise’s calendar. Since Edge of Tomorrow hit theaters, he’s cranked out four Mission: Impossible films while squeezing in American Made (2017) and Top Gun: Maverick (2022). Add Alejandro González Iñárritu’s upcoming drama, already in the can and scheduled for 2026, and you get the picture. For years, there simply wasn’t any room for another alien time-loop epic.
Still, the passion never faded. Emily Blunt has been vocal about her interest, confirming in 2023 that Christopher McQuarrie had finished a script. She called it “an amazing script” but also admitted, “Honestly, I think the movie’s too expensive… I would love it. Doug Liman would love it. Tom would love it. We’d all love to do it, but I think until we figure out what’s going on with the industry – honestly, I think we need to figure out what is the next road map for the kinds of films that people want to make.”
The original Edge of Tomorrow grossed $375 million worldwide. That’s respectable, but not Marvel-level numbers. What saved it was word of mouth and a surge in home video sales. Over time, it’s become a cult sci-fi classic. Fans still debate its ending: Cruise’s Major William Cage defeats the alien Omega and breaks the time loop, but the final scene hints at lingering déjà vu. It’s practically begging for a continuation. Liman once teased that the sequel, at one point titled Live Die Repeat and Repeat, would “revolutionize how people make sequels.”
Hollywood being Hollywood, the future of this franchise isn’t limited to movies. Village Roadshow Pictures confirmed a spin-off series was in the works for HBO Max, set in the same world as Edge of Tomorrow. That never happened, of course. But a sequel could revive that idea too.
As Liman told Total Film, “I do think there’s probably no better compliment to a movie than people wanting for there to be a sequel.” He’s right. For a film that once limped into theaters only to gain momentum years later, the demand speaks volumes. And now, with Cruise free from Mission: Impossible missions and Emily Blunt still on board, 2026 could finally be the year we get the long-promised return to live, die, repeat.
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