Many of the people who in the cast of Mission: Impossible 7, a.k.a. Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One, will be back the following year for Mission: Impossible 8, a.k.a. Dead Reckoning Part Two. However, a new casting has come in for someone who won’t be present in the former, but will cross paths with Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt in the latter. Mindhunter star Holt McCallany has joined Mission: Impossible 8 for what sounds like a significant role.
Mindhunter fans know Holt McCallany for playing FBI agent Bill Tench during the two seasons that streamed to Netflix subscribers between 2017 and 2019. McCallany’s other credits include movies like Alien 3, Alpha Dog, Gangster Squad, Wrath of Man and Nightmare Alley, and other TV shows like CSI: Miami, Blue Bloods and 61st Street. Deadline is now sharing that McCallany will appear in Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part Two as Secretary of Defense Bernstein.
Much like Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One, plot details are being kept a closely guarded secret for the eighth Mission: Impossible movie. Sure, the first Mission: Impossible 7 trailer provided a little context for the beginning of what’s expected to be the end of Tom Cruise’s run as Ethan Hunt, but without having seen that movie, we’re far from learning what we should expect from Dead Reckoning Part Two. That said, with Holt McCallany playing the U.S. Secretary of Defense, there’s a good chance we’ll see him interacting with Ethan at some point, although as has happened time and time again in this spy franchise, just because Bernstein holds a powerful government position doesn’t mean he’s on our protagonist’s side.
Among the other people fresh to the Mission: Impossible franchise who appear with Holt McCallany in Dead Reckoning Part Two are Hayley Atwell as the mysterious Grace, Esai Morales as one of the villains, Shea Whighan as Jasper Briggs and Pom Klementieff in an undisclosed role. Turning to the familiar faces, Ethan Hunt will be joined once again by Ving Rhames’ Luther Stickell, Simon Pegg’s Benji Dunn, Rebecca Ferguson’s Ilsa Faust, Vanessa Kirby’s Alanna Mitsopolis and Henry Czerny’s Eugene Kittridge. As he’s been doing since Rogue Nation, Christopher McQuarrie carried out writing and directing duties on both of the upcoming Mission: Impossible movies, with Dead Reckoning Part Two still currently in principal photography.
Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part Two comes out on June 28, 2024, and Part One will proceed it on July 14, 2023. There aren’t a lot of other 2024 releases to keep track of yet, but you’re welcome to look through the 2023 release schedule to see the movies coming our way next year. For those of you who like Holt McCallany’s work as Lieutenant Brannigan in 61st Street, the AMC series will return for a second season sometime next year as well.