‘Avengers’ Actress Hayley Atwell Joins Next ‘Mission: Impossible’ With Tom Cruise

Hayley Atwell, who plays Agent Peggy Carter in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, will join Tom Cruise‘s Mission: Impossible franchise. On Friday, writer and director Christopher McQuarrie announced the casting on Instagram with a photo of the actress. The seventh Mission: Impossible film will not be released until 2021.

McQuarrie shared a black and white photo of Atwell on a dossier with the Impossible Mission Force logo.

“Should you choose to accept…” he wrote in the caption, tagging Atwell.

“Mission: Accepted. Though I’m not the sort to follow orders…” Atwell replied in her own Instagram posts.

It’s not clear what Atwell’s role in the film will be. The actress most recently starred in Warner Bros.’ Blinded by the Light and joined David Tennant in the new Netflix series Criminal.

Atwell starred in several British series and 2008’s The Duchess before she broke through with her role as Agent Peggy Carter in Captain America: The First Avenger. The character instantly became a fan-favorite, leading to her own two-season series that lasted from 2015 to 2016.

Atwell also appeared in Ant-Man, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Avengers: Endgame. She voiced Peggy in the animated series Avengers Assemble and in the upcoming Disney+ series What If…?.

Atwell worked for Disney outside Marvel in 2018’s Christopher Robin and 2015’s Cinderella. Her other credits include 3Below: Tales of Arcadia, Howards End, Jimi: All Is By My Side and Conviction.

Back in January 2019, Paramount announced plans to make Mission: Impossible 7 and M:I 8 back-to-back, with the seventh opening on July 23, 2021. M:I 8 is scheduled for Aug. 5, 2022. McQuarrie signed on to write and direct both films, with Cruise returning to play Ethan Hunt.

The plot for the two films remains unknown, but The Hollywood Reporter reported McQuarrie was “considering” including Alec Baldwin and Henry Cavill’s characters, even though they are both dead. Baldwin played IMF chief Alan Hunley in Rogue Nation and Fallout, while Cavill starred as Special Activities Division operative August Walker in Fallout. Rebecca Ferguson is also expected to play Ilsa Faust again.

Paramount has every reason to believe audiences want more Mission: Impossible movies after the eye-popping success of last year’s Mission: Impossible – Fallout. The film was a critical success and became the highest-grossing film of the franchise, grossing $790 million worldwide.

The Mission: Impossible franchise is inspired by the 1966-1973 TV series created by Bruce Gellar and began in 1996. The first four films were directed by different directors, but McQuarrie has been handed the keys since Rogue Nation was a hit in 2015.

Photo credit: David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images