Mission: Impossible 7 and 8 Casts Henry Czerny in Return Role

Henry Czerny will reprise his role as IMF director Eugene Kittridge for Mission Impossible: 7 and Mission: Impossible: 8.

The Mission: Impossible franchise is welcoming back an old friend for its next two films.

Mission: Impossible 7 and Mission: Impossible 8 director Christopher McQuarrie tweeted out a smoldering headshot of Henry Czerny along with the text “There is no escaping the past…” The Wrap then confirmed that this does indeed mean Czerny will be returning to the franchise to reprise his role as Impossible Mission Force director Eugene Kittridge from the first film.

https://twitter.com/chrismcquarrie/status/1223637341224476674?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

In 1996’s Mission: Impossible, Czerny’s character Eugene Kittridge tries to track down IMF agent and suspected Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) before eventually discovering that someone else is the mole. It’s hard to believe that Czerny didn’t appear in any of the subsequent five sequels as Kittridge is one of the very few characters who makes it out of the first film alive. Instead Czerny spent the next two decades appearing in films such as The Ice Storm, The Exorcism of Emily Rose, and most recently: Ready or Not. He’s also had extensive television work on shows including Supergirl, Sharp Objects, and Quantico.

The announcement of two sequels simultaneously has allowed McQuarrie and Cruise to pull off some ambitious two-movie casting heists. Czerny is the second new actor to be announced for both movies after Guardians of the Galaxy‘s Pom Klementieff, who will be playing a femme fatale.

read more – Mission: Impossible and the Importance of Spy Movies

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In Czerny’s absence the Mission: Impossible franchise has become an action-movie powerhouse. McQuarrie has directed the last two films in the series, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol and Mission: Impossible – Fallout and will be returning to the next two, both without the customary subtitles yet. Mission: Impossible 7 will hit theaters on July 23, 2021 and Mission: Impossible 8 will follow that up on August 5, 2022…at which point Tom Cruise will be 60 years old!

Alec Bojalad is TV Editor at Den of Geek and TCA member. Read more of his stuff here. Follow him at his creatively-named Twitter handle @alecbojalad