Avengers star Tom Hiddleston is in the running to be named best actor at this year’s Evening Standard Theatre Awards, five years after first winning the prize.

The actor, who triumphed in 2014 for Coriolanus, is shortlisted for his performance in the revival of Pinter’s love triangle drama Betrayal at the Harold Pinter Theatre.

Other big names whose talents could be rewarded at the event, held in association with Michael Kors, include Hiddleston’s fellow Marvel star Hayley Atwell, Sheridan Smith, Andrew Scott and Dame Maggie Smith.

Suits star Wendell Pierce is on the shortlist for best actor, given in partnership with the Ambassador Theatre Group, for his performance as Willy Loman in Death Of A Salesman. It opened in the West End last week after a run at the Young Vic. Completing the line-up for best actor are K. Todd Freeman and Francis Guinan, who both appeared in Downstate at the National Theatre, and Scott, who impressed the critics in a gender-switched version of Noel Coward’s autobiographical comedy Present Laughter at the Old Vic. Atwell and Dame Maggie are among those on the best actress shortlist, for their performances in Ibsen’s political drama Rosmersholm at the Duke Of York’s Theatre and one-woman show A German Life at the Bridge Theatre respectively.

The other contenders for the Natasha Richardson award for best actress, given in partnership with Christian Louboutin, are Cecilia Noble, who is shortlisted for performances at the National in Downstate and Faith, Hope And Charity, Juliet Stevenson for The Doctor at the Almeida and Anjana Vasan for A Doll’s House at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre. Smith’s role in Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat sees her shortlisted for best musical performance with Anne-Marie Duff in Sweet Charity and Andy Nyman in Trevor Nunn’s revival of Fiddler On The Roof.

Evening Standard Editor George Osborne said: “The London theatre scene continues to thrive and the Evening Standard Theatre Awards recognises and celebrates the talent from the rising stars of tomorrow to best directors and actresses.

“There have been so many incredible theatre performances this year and we look forward to the awards ceremony to unveil the outstanding achievements.”

This year also sees a celebration of female writers, with work by Caryl Churchill, debbie tucker green and Lynn Nottage among the contenders for best play, given in partnership with Chanel, along with Downstate by Bruce Norris.

I have added some new photos of Hayley Atwell to the gallery. Go there to take a look.

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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.

Hayley Atwell is joining Tom Cruise in the upcoming installment of the “Mission: Impossible” franchise.

Writer-director Christopher McQuarrie posted the news on his Instagram account, writing “Should you choose to accept…” and a photo of Atwell, referencing the famous recurring “Mission: Impossible” quote.

Cruise will return as the seemingly indestructible secret agent Ethan Hunt for two more “Mission: Impossible” movies. Paramount has dated the seventh film for July 23, 2021, while an eighth installment will be released on Aug. 5, 2022.

McQuarrie is on board to direct both films. He previously directed 2015’s “Rogue Nation” and 2018’s “Fallout,” which was the best performer of the franchise with $791.1 million globally. The six films in the series have combined for $3.57 billion in worldwide box office. After years of switching up the director to give a new feel to each installment, Cruise and Paramount settled on McQuarrie as the primary director.

Atwell has gained prominence for her role as Peggy Carter in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, starting with “Captain America: The First Avenger” and including the “Agent Carter” series, “Ant-Man,” “Avengers: Age of Ultron” and “Avengers: Endgame.” She also has credits on “Cinderella,” “Christopher Robin” and “Blinded by the Light.” [Source]

Hayley Atwell took part in the Disney+ Showcase at Disney’s D23 EXPO 2019, past August 23 in Anaheim, California. You can go to the gallery to take a look to the photos.

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In 2017, the star received a call from Marvel and within a few weeks was on set playing Peggy Carter for a franchise-ending shot: “to just have two people slow-dancing was very beautiful.”

It was the end of an 11-year saga. The final moment of Avengers: Endgame shows Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) and Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) finally having that dance after Captain America travels back in time and decides to live out his life with his first love. The scene is also among the most dissected moments of Endgame, with fans (and even the filmmakers) split on what it all means.

For Atwell, it was just one afternoon shot in secret in 2017. She received a call a few weeks earlier and was informed that the moment might end the decade-plus story Marvel Studios had been building towards since 2008. After playing Peggy Carter through five movies and two seasons of television on ABC’s Agent Carter, Endgame could be Atwell’s final turn as Peggy in live action.

“I thought it was a fitting end to a story that has affected so many people. I thought it was very endearing, innocent and wholesome in the way that it keeps those characters in their time,” Atwell tells The Hollywood Reporter.

Atwell is back in theaters this weekend with Blinded by the Light, a film from Bend It Like Beckham director Gurinder Chadha, which tells the true story of a British-Pakistani kid who becomes enamored with the music of Bruce Springsteen. Atwell plays Ms. Clay, an encouraging teacher to Javed (Viveik Kalra).

In a conversation with The Hollywood Reporter, Atwell discusses her inspirations for Blinded by the Light and weighs in on Marvel’s animated What If? series, which will see her reprise her role as Peggy Carter.

A host of guest stars have signed on for “Criminal,” the stripped-down Netflix procedural set in France, Spain, Germany and the U.K. The action takes place within the confines of a police interview suite. There are three 45-minute episodes set in each country.

Guest stars in the British installments include David Tennant (“Good Omens”), Hayley Atwell (“Agent Carter”), Youssef Kerkour (“Dracula”) and Clare-Hope Ashitey (“Doctor Foster”). George Kay (“Killing Eve”) and Jim Field Smith (“Endeavour”) are the showrunners.

The Idiotlamp-produced series was filmed at Netflix’s new production hub in Madrid. The series bows globally on Netflix in the fall.

In France, the roster of guest stars includes Nathalie Baye and Jérémie Renier, and in Germany Peter Kurth and Christian Berkel. The Spanish episodes will have Carmen Machi and Inma Cuesta guesting.

The episodes are all in the local language, with writing and directing talent from the individual territories taking charge of the episodes from their countries, setting up an innovative production model.

The regular cast in the U.K. includes Katherine Kelly, Lee Ingleby and Nicholas Pinnock. In France, Margot Bancilhon, Laurent Lucas and Stéphane Jobert are among the regulars, and in Germany, regulars include Eva Meckbach, Sylvester Groth, and Florence Kasumba.

The Spanish regulars include Jorge Bosch, José Ángel Egido and Nuria Mencía.

Netflix announced the series late last year and added the casting information in a teaser video released Monday. [Source]

In the Marvel films, British bombshell Peggy Carter needs no super powers to vanquish her enemies. But Hayley Atwell, the 37-year-old English actress who plays her in the most lucrative franchise ever made, certainly seems to possess something special.

When we meet, Atwell has just endured two and a half hours of emotional torment as the tragic heroine in a new West End production of Ibsen’s Rosmersholm. Yet here she is signing autographs for fans at the stage door, wide-eyed and fresh as a sea breeze, looking as if she’s all set for a day’s work. Surely that’s a super power?

“I’ve never felt so energetic,” she tells me as she leads me to her dressing room in the Duke of York’s Theatre. “I think it has a lot to do with having experienced adversity. You know, moments of failure in my career. But then, once you’ve been around the block you can let go of the person you think you’re supposed to be. My friends in their thirties and forties are much happier now because of that. I mean, there was a reckless thrill when you were younger of working s— out and making horrendous mistakes, but now I feel I am driving my own life.”

If Atwell’s CV contains such mistakes, they are overwhelmed by her successes: an enviable combination of high-end television adaptations, a prolific stage career and, of course, the Avengers films and her own Netflix spin-off, Agent Carter.

To her performances, Atwell brings both a crisp-vowelled Blitz spirit and a forceful modernity, a contrast that has served her well in some of her biggest period drama roles – as the progressive Margaret Schlegel in the 2017 BBC adaptation of Howards End, and as Julia Flyte in the big-screen version of Brideshead Revisited (2008).