Oscar-nominated actorJeremy Renner played William Brandt in Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, and some believed he might have been in the running to take over the mantle from Tom Cruise to lead the series in the future. That was never the plan, Renner clarified in a recent interview in which he also discussed why he stopped making Mission: Impossible films.

He said on the Happy Sad Confused podcast that director Christopher McQuarrie wanted Renner to fly over to London for a week to film a scene in an unspecified Mission: Impossible film that killed off Brandt. But Renner refused.

"I was like, 'No, you don't get to do that. You're not going to drag me over there and just kill my character,' like get out of here!" Renner said. "If you're going to do this and you're going to use my character, you're going to do it right."