Top Gun: Maverick star Tom Cruise will be joined by a host of new and familiar faces.

By Molly Moss

Published: Tuesday, 04 July 2023 at 12:00 am


Top Gun: Maverick star Tom Cruise will soon be back on our screens as Impossible Mission Force (IMF) agent Ethan Hunt.

That’s right, folks: Paramount/Skydance’s hotly-anticipated Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One is fast approaching, and it looks set to bring together an epic cast of old and new faces.

New additions to the Mission: Impossible franchise in Dead Reckoning Part One include Esai Morales, Pom Klementieff and Shea Whigham and Hayley Atwell, who will appear as a mysterious character called Grace.

Speaking to Screen Rant about her character’s relationship with Cruise’s Hunt, Atwell recently teased that the two have a “cat-and-mouse” dynamic.

The movie also reunites Cruise with several returning characters including Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames), Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg) and Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson). 

But who else stars in the cast of Mission: Impossible 7? Read on for everything you need to know.

Who’s in the cast of Mission: Impossible 7?

The full cast list is as follows:

Read on for more details about the characters as well as where you’ve seen the actors before.

Tom Cruise plays Ethan Hunt

"Tom
Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt in Mission: Impossible 7.
YouTube/Paramount Pictures UK

Who is Ethan Hunt? Ethan is a star agent of the Impossible Mission Force (IMF). Cruise has played IMF agent Ethan Hunt in the previous six instalments of the Mission: Impossible franchise, first appearing in the original Top Gun film back in 1986.

What else has Tom Cruise been in? Cruise’s breakout role came in the classic 1980s comedy Risky Business. He went on to star in The Color of Money, Rain Man, Born on the Fourth of July, A Few Good Men, The Firm, Interview with the Vampire, Jerry Maguire, Vanilla Sky, Minority Report, The Last Samurai, Collateral, War of the Worlds, Knight and Day, Jack Reacher, Oblivion and Edge of Tomorrow.

He also received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his appearance in the 1999 film Magnolia.

Rebecca Ferguson plays Ilsa Faust

"Rebecca
Rebecca Ferguson as Ilsa Faust in Mission: Impossible 7.
YouTube/Paramount Pictures UK

Who is Isla Faust? A former MI6 agent and current Ethan Hunt ally. Ferguson has portrayed the character since 2015’s Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation.

What else has Rebecca Ferguson been in? Ferguson has starred in various films such as Rogue Nation and its sequel Fallout, The Greatest Showman, The Girl on the Train and Denis Villeneuve’s two-part adaptation of Dune. Most recently, she led the cast of Apple TV+’s Silo as Juliette.

Hayley Atwell plays Grace

"Hayley
Hayley Atwell in Mission: Impossible 7.
YouTube/Paramount Pictures UK

Who is Grace? Little is known about Atwell’s character or where her loyalties lie at this point in time.

What else has Hayley Atwell been in? Atwell will be familiar to Marvel fans as Peggy Carter, who – since 2011 – has appeared in the Captain America movies, Ant-Man, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD and her own spin-off TV series, Agent Carter. The star has also appeared in The Pillars of the Earth, Howards End, The Duchess and Christopher Robin.

Vanessa Kirby plays Alanna Mitsopolis 

"Vanessa
Vanessa Kirby in Mission: Impossible 7.
YouTube/Paramount Pictures UK

Who is Alanna Mitsopolis? A black market arms dealer referred to professionally as White Widow. The character was last seen in Mission: Impossible – Fallout.

What else has Vanessa Kirby been in? Kirby made her television debut in 2011 in BBC drama The Hour. She went on to appear as Estella as part of the BBC’s adaptation of Great Expectations later the same year. Other TV credits include a part in mini-series Labyrinth, Poirot and The Frankenstein Chronicles, as well as The Crown.

Simon Pegg plays Benji Dunn

"Simon
Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames, Rebecca Ferguson and Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible 7.
YouTube/Paramount Pictures UK

Who is Benji Dunn? An IMF technician turned field agent. Pegg has portrayed the character since Mission: Impossible III.

What else has Simon Pegg been in? Pegg rose to fame thanks to his role in Channel 4 sitcom Spaced. He went on to star in the Cornetto Trilogy films, the Mission: Impossible films, Doctor Who, Star Wars and Star Trek.

Ving Rhames plays Luther Stickell

Who is Luther Stickell? An IMF computer technician and Hunt’s best pal.

What else has Ving Rhames been in? Rhames has played the role of Luther since the beginning of the franchise. His other credits include Pulp Fiction, I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry, Con Air and The District.

Esai Morales plays Gabriel 

"Esai
Esai Morales as Gabriel in Mission: Impossible 7.
Paramount/ YouTube.

Who is Gabriel? A villain in the movie, whose motives will push the IMF to the edge.

What else has Esai Morales been in? Fans might recognise Morales from the Battlestar Galactica prequel Caprica, in which he portrayed Joseph Adama, or the Netflix series Ozark, in which he plays Camino del Rio.

He has also appeared as Section Chief Mateo Cruz in Criminal Mind and Deathstroke in the HBO Max superhero series Titans.

Pom Klementieff plays Paris 

Who is Paris? A villain and French assassin who is hired by Gabriel to track down Ethan and Grace.

What else has Pom Lementieff been in? The actress initially starred in a number of films in her homeland France, before landing her first English language role in the 2013 remake of Oldboy. She went on to appear in films such as Ingrid Goes West, Uncut Gems, Thunder Force and as Mantis in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3.

Who else is in the cast of Mission: Impossible 7?

"Shea
Shea Whigham is seen filming Mission: Impossible 7 at Via Dei Fori Imperiali.
Elisabetta A. Villa/GC Images

The supporting cast consists of Shea Whigham as Jasper Briggs, who is trying to track down Hunt, and Henry Czerny as Eugene Kittridge, the ex-director of the IMF who was last seen in the first Mission: Impossible movie.

Frederick Schmidt will also appear as Zola Mitsopolis, Alanna’s brother, while Cary Elwes will star as Denlinger, about whom we know nothing as yet besides their name.

In addition, Rob Delaney (Deadpool 2), Charles Parnell (Top Gun: Maverick) and Mark Gatiss (Sherlock) have joined the cast. While their character names are unknown, they are all involved in The Community, an agency tasked with bringing down Ethan Hunt.

Indira Varma (Obi-Wan Kenobi) will also star as a member of The Community, but her character name is yet to be disclosed, while Greg Tarzan (Top Gun: Maverick) will appear as a partner of the agency.

Mission: Impossible 7 will be released in the UK in July 2023. In the meantime, if you’re looking for more to watch, check out our TV Guide or visit our Film hub for all the latest news.

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