After completing his final mission for the X-Men in director Simon Kinberg's X-MEN: DARK PHOENIX, English-born actor Nicholas Hoult is joining Christopher McQuarrie for the director's next MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE sequel.
While little is known about who Hoult will play in the upcoming film, it's expected that the TOLKIEN actor will challenge Tom Cruise's Ethan Hunt as a villain. Cruise will of course reprise his role as the project's titular daredevil super spy for McQuarrie's next chapter in the franchise, which also stars Pom Klementieff, Rebecca Ferguson, Hayley Atwell, Shea Whigham, and Gregory Sanon.
McQuarrie revealed Hoult's casting via an Instagram post on Thursday, which you can view for yourself below:
As the story goes, Hoult was originally expected to play the role of Goose's son in Cruise's TOP GUN: MAVERICK, which flies into theaters this summer. While the role ended up going to Miles Teller, Hoult did engage in a positive meeting with Cruise, which eventually led to him being considered for the action star's next chapter of the Mission: Impossible series.
McQuarrie has a tremendous track record when it comes to Mission: Impossible, after having directed both 2015's ROGUE NATION and 2018's FALLOUT. When it comes to numbers, FALLOUT rose to become the most lucrative installment of the series with $791.1 million in global ticket sales.
Hot damn! The cast of MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 7 is really shaping up, is it not? I can't wait to see what McQuarrie, Cruise and their team have in mind with regard to taking the franchise to the next level when this film drops like an atom bomb in theaters on July 23, 2021.