Last week, writer/director Christopher McQuarrie announced that Hayley Atwell, best known for her time as Peggy Carter in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, will be joining the Mission: Impossible franchise, which Atwell confirmed soon after. At the time, it was unclear if she was only appearing in Mission: Impossible 7 or if she’d also be present in Mission: Impossible 8, but now the actress has set the record straight and declared it’s the latter.

Hayley Atwell turned to Instagram to inform the masses that she’ll be in both of the next Mission: Impossible movies, adding the following about getting to work with Christopher McQuarrie and Tom Cruise:

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.

Given how well-known Hayley Atwell has become this decade, it was to be expected that her role in the Mission: Impossible universe would likely be important, but that was still no guarantee that she’d be around for both movies. Now Atwell has cleared up the matter and we can look forward to her character taking part in Mission: Impossible 7 and Mission: Impossible 8, although we’re still in the dark about if this individual will be an ally or enemy to Ethan Hunt.

Last year’s Mission: Impossible – Fallout is the most successful of the franchise so far, grossing over $791 million worldwide and earning critical acclaim. So needless to say it was expected that another Mission: Impossible movie would get the green light, but in January of this year, Paramount Pictures announced that Christopher McQuarrie would return to make two more Mission: Impossible sequels that will be filmed back-to-back.

So far Hayley Atwell is the third actor confirmed to appear in both Mission: Impossible 7 and Mission: Impossible 8. Obviously Tom Cruise will reprise Ethan Hunt, a character he’s played for nearly 25 years, and Rebecca Ferguson also revealed she’ll be back as Ilsa Faust, who was a key player in Rogue Nation and Fallout.

It was also rumored we could see Alec Baldwin and Henry Cavill in these movies again, almost certainly in flashbacks or hallucinations given that both their characters died in Fallout. Ideally we’ll get one or more casting updates for the next Mission: Impossible movies before the year is over.

As Hayley Atwell noted, it’s been a big year for her. In addition to cameoing as Peggy Carter in Avengers: Endgame and vocally reprising the character in the upcoming Disney+ animated series What If… ?, she also starred in the West End production Rosmersholm and appeared in Blinded by the Light, and will be seen next in the Netflix series Criminal: UK, which drops on Netflix next week.

Mission: Impossible 7 will be released in theaters on July 23, 2021, and Mission: Impossible 8 will follow on August 5, 2022. We here at CinemaBlend will keep you up to date on how both movies are coming along, but for now, check out our 2019 release schedule to learn what’s coming out for the rest of the year. [Source]