10 Things You Need To Know About Mission Impossible 7
9. Familiar Names Have Chosen To Accept...
Having maintained at least one team member between every installment in terms of continuity, it goes without saying that Ethan Hunt will have several old friends and associates along for the ride to help him save the world this time around.
This time around, he's got four of them officially confirmed to be returning for duty after their appearances in Fallout, in the shape of Simon Pegg's fellow IMF agent Benji Dunn, Ving Rhames' key friend Luther Stickell, Rebecca Ferguson's ex-MI6 foil Ilsa Faust and Vanessa Kirby's underground arms dealer Alanna Mitsopolis, known better by her nickname the White Widow.
It would have been a shock for Pegg to miss the cut, given he has grown from a small role in the third entry to effectively become the franchise's deuteragonist. Likewise, Rhames - as the only ever-present alongside Cruise in this franchise - was likely always to stay in the fray as the IMF's favourite hat aficionado. The return of Kirby too is a welcome one, if something of a surprise; as a character who was more of a legacy nod to Vanessa Redgrave's own black marketeer Max from the first film, her arc arguably looked to be done and dusted.
It's Ferguson who holds the most intrigue though. After two films that have played strongly upon the yin-and-yang chemistry of her and Cruise, the former femme fatale-turned-ally looks to have finally broken free from her British spy handlers, leaving her future up in the air - though it's hard to believe she won't by at Hunt's side for the majority of their next adventure.