Kittridge is back! One of the most exciting pieces of casting for the upcoming Mission: Impossible sequels (7 and 8 are being shot one right after the other) was Henry Czerny, who hasn’t appeared in a Mission movie since the first film in 1996 where he played IMF director Eugene Kittridge. That character’s interactions with Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt in that movie were a highlight, and so it was a delight to hear that writer/director Christopher McQuarrie was bringing this fan-favorite character back all these years later.
And now we have our first look at Kittridge back in action. Or back on a train, I should say. McQuarrie has shared a snapshot of Czerny on set in character as Kittridge and he’s, well, on a train. You’ll recall that Czerny spent much of the Mission: Impossible finale on a train car, and McQuarrie appears to be having some fun with the franchise here. Or maybe Kittridge has literally been stuck on the same train this whole time.
It’s admittedly not a super revealing image, but it’s an exciting one nonetheless. We still don’t know too much about the film’s story, but Cruise is joined by franchise mainstays Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, and Ving Rhames in this sequel with Vanessa Kirby and Angela Bassett reprising their Fallout roles. Newcomers include Hayley Atwell, Pom Klementieff, and Esai Morales.
Mission: Impossible 7 is due to hit theaters on November 19, 2021 and will be streaming on Paramount+ 45 days after that. Mission: Impossible 8, meanwhile, will hit theaters in November 2022.