Actor Henry Czerny will reprise his role as Eugene Kittridge for Mission: Impossible 7 and Mission: Impossible 8.
The news was revealed by director Christopher McQuarrie, who posted a picture of Czerny to Twitter, writing, "There is no escaping the past." The director then used "MI7MI8" as a hashtag, indicating the actor will appear in both films.
Czerny played Kittridge in 1996's Mission: Impossible. Kittridge, who was the head of the Impossible Mission Force, served as something of an antagonist in that film, working to chase down Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise). The character did not appear in subsequent films, and it's unclear just what's happened to him since that original movie. It's also unclear just how major his role in the next two movies will be.
McQuarrie has already helmed two Mission: Impossible films: 2015's Rogue Nation and 2018's Fallout, both of which were positively received by critics. The latter became the highest-grossing film in the franchise, grossing $791.1 million globally. Following that movie's success, McQuarrie was announced for the franchise's seventh and eighth films.
Mission: Impossible 7 will arrive on July 23, 2021, followed by Mission: Impossible 8 on Aug. 5, 2022.