Esai Morales Replaces Nicholas Hoult as Villain in ‘Mission: Impossible 7’

The Paramount and Skydance co-production has confirmed that Esai Morales will replace Nicholas Hoult as the villain in Tom Cruise’s “Mission: Impossible 7”.

Nicholas Hoult, whose was supposed to be the main villain in Mi7, had to depart due to scheduling concerns. “Mission: Impossible” closed down production in March due to the coronavirus pandemic. Though it’s unclear when filming will be able to resume, the delay will put Hoult in conflict with a prior obligation, shooting Hulu’s second season of “The Great.” This is going to happen often as films resume production with talent that has contracted out fall slots with other pictures, when there was no thought about a pandemic.

Tom Cruise is reprising his role as the seemingly indestructible globe-trotting secret agent Ethan Hunt in the seventh and eighth follow-ups. Christopher McQuarrie will write and direct both, which will be shot back-to-back.

Paramount Pictures recently pushed back the release date of Mi7 which was scheduled to be released on July 23, 2021, but will now arrive on Nov. 19, 2021. The eighth entry (Mi8) has also been delayed and will hit the big screen on Nov. 4, 2022.

Ving Rhames, Henry Czerny, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, and Vanessa Kirby are all returning for “Mission: Impossible 7,” while Hayley Atwell, Pom Klementieff and Shea Whigham have joined the cast.

Esai Morales is very popular for his role as DeathStroke in DCEU's series "Titans". Morales recently completed How To Get Away With Murder. He’s repped by Innovative and LINK.

The news was first reported by Deadline.