Hayley Atwell Thrilled to Join Tom Cruise in Next Two Mission: Impossible Movies

Last week, it was revealed that Hayley Atwell, who’s is best known for playing Peggy Carter in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, will be joining Tom Cruise in the next two installments of the Mission: Impossible franchise. The news was announced by Christopher McQuarrie, who will be helming the movies after taking up the mantle with both Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation and Mission: Impossible – Fallout, making him the first director to tackle multiple films in the franchise. According to the latest Instagram post from Atwell, the star is excited to begin her journey with the beloved action flicks.

“I had a go at a ‘photo grid’ in an attempt to display some tech-savvy-millennial skills. For those of you who don’t know, this involves nine separate posts loaded one at a time which only come together as a complete image when someone views the profile page. Some of the comments were of the ‘wot-is-goin-on-u-can’t-frame-a-picture, mate’ variety SO, to ease the confusion, here is my news in one post….. I’m thrilled to have joined @tomcruise and @christophermcquarrie for the next TWO Mission Impossible movies. To have gone from a classical play in the west-end to an audio book recording of a great new novel to a Disney/Marvel animation and now the female lead in a huge action franchise is the kind of variety that fuels my curiosity and keeps me learning and striving to be better and do better. I can’t wait to start sharing this adventure with you. Mostly in the form of effusive, sweaty ranting about stunt training while spontaneously vomiting with excitement/exhaustion. Lucky you,” Atwell wrote.

Atwell appeared as SSR agent-turned-S.H.I.E.L.D. co-founder Peggy Carter in Captain America: The First Avenger and sequel Captain America: The Winter Soldier, with cameo appearances in Avengers: Age of Ultron, Ant-Man and Avengers: Endgame. Atwell also headlined two-season ABC series Agent Carter, and will next lend her voice to Marvel Studios’ animated What If…? series planned for the Disney+ streaming service.

McQuarrie will film Mission: Impossible 7 and 8 back-to-back for studio Paramount, each planned for July 2021 and August 2022, respectively. Rebecca Ferguson is expected to return for the sequels alongside star-producer Cruise. Also expected to return, but not yet confirmed, are franchise veterans Ving Rhames and Simon Pegg.

In January, a report from THR claimed McQuarrie was “said to be considering” bringing back Alec Baldwin’s Impossible Mission Force secretary Alan Hunley and Henry Cavill’s rogue CIA agent August Walker via flashbacks after both characters were killed in 2018’s Mission: Impossible — Fallout. Story details remain under wraps, but McQuarrie once said he possesses a “very, very, very long list” of actors he hopes to recruit to the franchise.

Paramount has dated its pair of untitled Mission: Impossible sequels for July 23, 2021 and August 5, 2022.