10 Things You Need To Know About Mission Impossible 7

Amid all the talk of new arrivals and old hands though, there's one key cast member who remains shrouded in secrecy. Given McQuarrie's drip-feed approach to announcing his ensemble over the past few months, that's hardly surprising - but speaking on Light the Fuse, the director certainly indicated that the name currently in the dark is a big one that has left him and Cruise particularly satisfied.

"There is someone we were talking to before the world blew up," he noted. "An actor I was very excited about. I don't know where that is, because we had talked days before [production was brought to a halt amid the pandemic. It was an incredibly exciting casting coup."

McQuarrie also revealed that he had already cut a flashback sequence involving a deceased character as it didn't fit with the rest of his and Cruise's ideas - though, given he has helmed Rogue Nation and Fallout, it may not be a stretch to assume it will have either been Henry Cavill's CIA enforcer-turned-anarchist August Walker or Baldwin's Hunley - but he admitted that "any character, dead or alive, is fair game to return".