Obvious Confirmed - Jeremy Renner Taking Over Mission: Impossible Franchise

Quality being another matter, I imagine audiences will flock for *clears throat* Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol about as much as they did for the J.J. Abrams-helmed third installment. That is to say it'll substantially under-perform, and, for the eighteenth time or so, everyone will question Tom Cruise's bankability as if it's never been picked apart before. Unless, of course, he's not in the film too terribly much.

Speaking to MTV Movies Blog, co-star Jeremy Renner confirmed what everyone assumed, and told otherwise by the key principles involved. Tom Cruise is being shown the EXIT door from any further M:I flicks with the Hurt Locker star expected to fill that void:

"It's a franchise to potentially take over. I can't predict the future and what they want, but that's certainly the idea."

We've seen those set pictures of Cruise's Ethan Hunt in action. I'm wondering if the plan is to off him in the first act and hand things over to Renner's as-yet-named agent or will Hunt walk into the sunset at the end in one piece? If so, then that's a retread of the last one. So if I'm placing money on this, and I'm not...yet, I'd say Mr. Hunt meets his demise early on.