The Tom Cruise Mission Impossible franchise has lost many operatives over the years, not just to death but to mysterious saga exits — like Jeremy Renner’s William Brandt, Maggie Q’s Zhen Li, and Paula Patton’s Jane Carter. Though it’s still a franchise with a lasting memory. Enough to bring back Ethan’s ex, Michelle Monaghan’s Julia, for 2018’s Fallout anyhow.
Now the series, which is the middle of shooting both its seventh and eighth installments back to back (written and directed by Christopher McQuarrie, who helmed both Rogue Nation and Fallout), is going all the way back to Brian De Palma’s 1996 film to bring back an original face from Ethan’s distant past. Check out McQuarrie’s Twitter post from today…
There is no escaping the past…#MI7MI8 pic.twitter.com/FwZCsAlnqE
— Christopher McQuarrie (@chrismcquarrie) February 1, 2020
That’s a picture of Henry Czerny as Kittridge from the first film – the franchise’s first director of the Impossible Mission Force and the voice behind the Ethan’s “this message will self-destruct” orders. With the image is the hashtag #MI7MI8, indicating that Kittridge will be part of both films!
Kittridge served as a big obstacle for Ethan in the first movie as he believed Ethan was the mole behind the sabotage of his own team. The two of them met face to face in a restaurant and when Ethan realized he was about to be apprehended, he blew up a giant fish tank to escape.
Visual effects supervisor of the Mission Impossible films, Todd Vaziri, posted this as well…
KITTRIDGE ALERT pic.twitter.com/BafJViZcTZ
— Todd Vaziri (@tvaziri) February 1, 2020
Genre fans will have most likely seen Henry Czerny recently in 2019’s Ready or Not where he played the cultist patriarch of a tabletop gaming dynasty who attempts, with the rest of his family, to kill his son’s new bride. He was also in HBO’s 2018 miniseries Sharp Objects, starring Amy Adams.
Czerny joins the already cast additions of the MCU’s Hayley Atwell and Pom Klementieff, along with Joker’s Shea Whigham and the X-Men saga’s Nicholas Hoult.
Mission: Impossible 7 is slated for release on July 23, 2021, while Mission: Impossible 8 is set for release on August 5, 2022.
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Matt Fowler is a writer for IGN and a member of the Television Critics Association. Follow him on Twitter at @TheMattFowler and Facebook at Facebook.com/MattBFowler.
Source: IGN.com Mission Impossible: Henry Czerny Returning as Kittridge for Next Two Films