Hayley Atwell joins Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible 7!
Marvel actress Hayley Atwell is trading in Captain America for Tom Cruise! The actress has signed on for the next Mission: Impossible feature, and joins a returning cast that includes Cruise, Rebecca Ferguson (Doctor Sleep), Simon Pegg (Ready Player One) and Ving Rhames (Pulp Fiction). Director Christopher McQuarrie confirmed the news via his Instagram account, which you can see below, to which Atwell replied, “Mission: Accepted,” followed by the cryptic, “Though I’m not the sort to follow orders …”
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Following the large critical and commercial success of the past two installments, writer/director Christopher McQuarrie signed a new deal with Paramount to return to write and direct the next two installments, turning down other studio offers to continue his long-running partnership with franchise star Tom Cruise.
RELATED: Christopher McQuarrie Talks Mission: Impossible – Fallout
Skydance Media, who joined the franchise with the fourth installment, Ghost Protocol, will be returning to produce the next two entries.
Atwell is best known for her portrayal of Peggy Carter in the Marvel Universe, a role that branched off into a short lived TV series, but has appeared in a number of films and TV series including Christopher Robin, Black Mirror, The Pillars of Earth and The Prisoner.
The Mission: Impossible franchise spans almost 25 years and six films, starting off with modest critical and major box office success in the first two films before launching its lead protagonist into grittier and more explosive stories, each film getting progressively better reviews than its predecessor, with the most recent installment, Fallout, earning the highest reviews for both the franchise and the action genre, currently maintaining a 97% approval rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes while also acquiring the highest box office gross of the franchise at over $790 million worldwide.
