Ted Lasso’s Hannah Waddingham Talks Working With Tom Cruise on Mission: Impossible 8

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One hit theaters earlier this year, and fans have known for a while that the story was being split into two parts. The eighth installment was recently delayed to 2025, and not much is known about director Christopher McQuarrie’s plans after the first film’s cliffhanger. There are some exciting actors joining the cast, including Ted Lasso alum Hannah Waddingham. It was announced that she would be joining the franchise earlier this year, and the star recently appeared on the Christmas episode of ITV’s James Martin’s Saturday Morning (via The Independent), and talked about what it was like working with franchise star, Tom Cruise. 

“I have to say, I have a real problem with anybody that goes at [Tom Cruise] now,” Waddingham said. “Having met him and having spent five days intensely… He is without doubt one of the loveliest and encouraging, positive, and inspiring human beings I have ever met. Isn’t he gorgeous? I have no time for anyone saying anything about him.”

Why Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning in Two Parts? 

During an interview with Collider, McQuarrie explained why Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning has been split into two parts.

“Well, we knew with Fallout. Fallout really grew because of all the character and emotion we were putting into the story, all the things that we had discovered in Rogue Nation that was so unexpected,” McQuarrie shared. “I knew I wanted to expand the cast, and I knew I wanted to give each one of those characters more to do, so I knew the movie was going to be bigger and longer than Fallout.”

“And at which point I said, ‘Why are we fighting this? Why are we going to try to jam this into two hours? Let’s just break it in half and make it two movies.’ That really was the rationale behind it being a two-part movie. It just it wasn’t just that the story was bigger but that we wanted more emotion in the movie,” he added. 

“Yeah, it’s massive, and it was complicated by the fact that certain things in Part Two required stopping Part One to shoot them, whether it was because of weather or actor availability. And so, with all the other challenges that were confronting this movie while we were making it, there was the challenge of stopping in the middle, not even knowing what the full movie was, and trying to predict what it was in the second film. It’s a testament to how great this team is and how patient this cast is. It’s really something,” McQuarrie explained. 

Are you excited to see Hannah Waddingham in Mission: Impossible 8? Tell us in the comments!