The Mission: Impossible franchise has flourished under the thumb of writer/director Christopher McQuarrie, and his time with Ethan Hunt and the gang won't be over anytime soon. It was announced earlier this week that McQuarrie will write and direct Mission: Impossible 7 and Mission: Impossible 8, which will be shot back to back. While story development on both movies is still in the early stages, apparently featuring Henry Cavill's August Walker and Alec Baldwin's Alan Hunley is on the table.
According to THR, Christopher McQuarrie is considering having Henry Cavill and Alec Baldwin reprise their respective roles in one or both movies. This is intriguing since both characters died in last year's Mission: Impossible - Fallout, and since this franchise doesn't play with supernatural elements like resurrection, these appearances would be through flashbacks. It's also possible that as McQuarrie continues writing the scripts, he'll change his mind, but for now, Fallout might not be the last we've seen of these characters.
Alec Baldwin first appeared as Alan Hunley in Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation as the Director of the CIA. Initially Hunley was against the IMF and succeeded in having it disbanded and absorbed into the CIA due to its controversial methods and lack of leadership at the time. He even organized a manhunt for Ethan Hunt, forcing him to stay undercover. However, by the end of Rogue Nation, Hunley realized the IMF's value, convinced the Senate subcommittee to reinstate the agency and was appointed as its new secretary. Unfortunately, his tenure wouldn't last long.
Enter Henry Cavill as August Walker, who was initially presented in Mission: Impossible - Fallout as an operative working for new CIA Director Erika Sloane, but later revealed to be John Lark, the criminal Ethan Hunt and his team were tracking who hired The Apostles to find Solomon Lane, the main antagonist from Rogue Nation. Shortly after it was revealed that August was Lark, he killed Alan Hunley while escaping custody. By the end of Fallout, though, Walker met his demise at Ethan's hands.
Ever since Christopher McQuarrie boarded the Mission: Impossible franchise, there's been a greater sense of connectivity between the movies. So while nothing is set in stone yet, flashing back to Alan Hunley and August Walker would be fitting. Walker could be shown to have ties with whoever the next villains are, and it would be easy enough to show Hunley through a previous meeting he had with Ethan Hunt before the events of Fallout. I should also note that McQuarrie decides to specifically bring back Henry Cavill, the actor will need to display that glorious mustache again. A clean-shaven Walker is simply unacceptable.
If everything goes according to plan, Mission: Impossible 7 will hit theaters in summer 2021, and Mission: Impossible 8 will follow in summer 2022. Stay tuned to CinemaBlend for more updates on how these movies are progressing, and in the meantime, look through our 2019 release schedule to learn what's arriving later this year.
