‘Mission: Impossible 7’ Could Have A New Villain Due To Pandemic Production Delays

Considering time has no meaning anymore, it’s easy to forget that Mission: Impossible 7 was the first blockbuster film to abruptly abandon production all the way back in February. The latest film in the franchise was preparing to shoot in Italy just as that country began to explode with cases from the pandemic, and it wasn’t long before all of Hollywood began shutting down shortly thereafter.

But now Mission: Impossible 7 could be facing another first from the ongoing health crisis: A recasting of a major role. According to Deadline, Esai Morales (Ozark, Titans) could be replacing Nicolas Hoult as the villain.

The delay put Hoult in conflict with another commitment. This is going to happen often as films resume production with talent that has contracted out fall slots with other pictures, when there was no thought about a pandemic.

The picture was scheduled to be released on July 23, 2021 but that seems like a mission impossible because of COVID-19. The picture has been re-dated for November 19, 2021 to account for the delay.

Considering Hoult’s role was announced back in January and Morales is a last-minute replacement, we’re assuming this isn’t the exciting new addition to the cast that writer-director Christopher McQuarrie recently teased. While stopping by the Mission: Impossible podcast Light The Fuse, McQuarrie seemed particularly jazzed about hopefully landing the mystery actor. Via The Hollywood Reporter:

“There is someone we were talking to before the world blew up,” the director said. “An actor I was very excited about. I don’t know where that is, because we had talked days before [the shutdown] and it was an incredibly exciting casting coup.”

Mission: Impossible 7 is just one of two films in an overall story that McQuarrie is planning to tell back-to-back. Whenever the seventh installment wraps, the team will hop right into Mission: Impossible 8, which McQuarrie has already begun writing while waiting for Hollywood to fire back up.

(Via Deadline)

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