Mission Impossible Tom Cruise
Tom Cruise filming a stunt for Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation. Paramount Pictures

Mission: Impossible 6 could end up being delayed after Tom Cruise was left with broken bones following a failed stunt for the upcoming blockbuster.

The Sun reports that the 55-year-old star broke two bones in his ankle after attempting a wire jump between two rooftops in London and smacking into the cusp of one of the buildings. He was filmed hobbling on the injured ankle afterwards.

Filming of Mission: Impossible 6 - the follow-up to 2015's Rogue Nation - has now been halted for four months to allow Cruise to recover.

"The injury is worse than was at first feared," an insider told The Sun. "Tom did serious damage and will need months to recover. He is the film's biggest star and everything revolves around him. The movie's bosses had no choice other than to postpone the filming."

The delay suggests that the film's current July 2018 release date may be pushed back, but studio Paramount Pictures has yet to release an official announcement in that regard.

The 55-year-old actor is famed for his death-defying stunts, particularly those shot for the Mission Impossible franchise. In 2011's Ghost Protocol, the actor scaled the world's tallest building, Burj Khalifa. In Rogue Nation he was attached to the side of an Airbus 400 as it took off.

For MI6, which currently doesn't have an official title, the film's producer David Ellison said last year: "What Tom is doing in this movie I believe will top anything that's come before. It is absolutely unbelievable - he's been training for a year.

"It is going to be, I believe, the most impressive and unbelievable thing that Tom Cruise has done in a movie, and he has been working on it since right after Rogue Nation came out. It's gonna be mind-blowing."

The stunt probably wasn't running between rooftops in Blackfriars, but that's what's ended up seriously injuring the star. No doubt he'll be back a soon as his ankle has healed up.

In Mission: Impossible 6 crews stars opposite returning stars Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Ving Rhames, Michelle Monaghan, Alec Baldwin and Sean Harris, as well as newcomers Henry Cavill and Angela Bassett.