Paramount Pictures surprised the hell out of us earlier this year by announcing back-to-back sequels for the Mission: Impossible franchise being released one year apart in the summers of 2021 and 2022. And they’ve been surpring us even more by adding a few impressive names to the cast.

The upcoming Mission: Impossible sequels cast has officially added Joker co-star and Boardwalk Empire cast member Shea Whigham to the growing ensemble cast. And yes, he’ll be in both of the sequels.

Director Christopher McQuarrie announced the Mission: Impossible sequels cast addition on Twitter:

You won’t see him coming…#MI78 pic.twitter.com/B17enQCj3x

— Christopher McQuarrie (@chrismcquarrie) December 20, 2019

It must be chilly in the studio where this headshot was taken, because Shea Whigham is certainly getting cozy in that coat he’s wearing. Maybe it’s a hint that we’ll be going to a frigid climate for one of the upcoming sequels, an environment that hasn’t been explored much in any of the movies so far, with the exception of the snowy mountains from the climax of Fallout. More importantly, the tweet that accompanies this photo implies that Whigham might be a new villain. Then again, it could also just be indicative of him being a good spy. Maybe it’s both?

Whigham joins a cast that has also added Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 co-star Pom Klementieff, and Captain America franchise star Hayley Atwell, the latter of which actually shared the small screen with Whigham in the Marvel spin-off series Agent Carter. They’ll also be joining returning franchise cast members Rebecca Ferguson, Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames, and of course Tom Cruise in the lead role as IMF agent Ethan Hunt.

McQuarrie knows he has quite the difficult task ahead of him by justifying why they need to back-to-back sequels for whatever they plan to do this time. The filmmaker himself even admitted, almost as if he realized this while he was saying it, “You’ve got to make something that swallows the last three movies whole. I’m freaked out now. We’ve talked ourselves into something. Holy shit.”

Mission: Impossible 7 is set for release on July 23, 2021, arriving 25 years after the original movie that launched the franchise, and Mission: Impossible 8 will arrive a little over a year later on August 5, 2022

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