Mission Impossible 6: 10 Things It Must Address
2. Find A Worthy Villain
As mentioned, Solomon Lane was a pretty solid villain. One who would seemingly fit in with some of the better recent bond villains, and one of the better bad guys in the Mission Impossible series.
Now, the producers must find a worthy villain for what could be the last, or next to last, film in the franchise, at least with Cruise involved.
That won't be easy. Philip Seymour Hoffman and Sean Harris have left some pretty hefty shoes to fill. Matching the right actor with the right character, who has the right motivations, won't be easy. That was perhaps the one failing with Solomon Lane: his motivations were somewhat muddled, and far-fetched. He wound up being sort of a highbrow "Agent of Chaos" with more in common with The Dark Knight's Joker than with any actual terrorist, and the fact that his motivations were delivered by some shoddy expositional dialog towards the end of the film didn't help.
Still, Lane was decent, Hoffman's Owen Davian was better, but there's definite room for improvement.