Henry Canvill To Star In the Upcoming Movie 'Mission Impossibe 6'

Henry Cavill has become most known for his role as Superman in the DC Extended Universe, but the extent of his participation in the upcoming Justice League still isn’t know since he’s, you know, dead. That hasn’t stopped him from continuing to promote his character, though, regularly posting Superman reference to his Instagram, including several Green Lantern teases.

It appears Cavill has been up to a lot more than simply stirring the DC rumor mill, though, as Variety just announced that the British actor is set to join the cast of Christopher McQuarrie’s follow-up to Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation. The sequel will be the sixth movie in the Mission Impossible franchise and is confirmed to feature returning stars Tom Cruise, Rebecca Ferguson, Simon Pegg, and Jeremy Renner.

Cavill’s role is said to be right-hand of Tom Cruise’s boss. That particular position has been filled by several actors in previous installments, but the most recent actor to play Ethan Hunt’s boss is Alec Baldwin, but his involvement hasn’t been confirmed yet, so there could be yet another authority figure cycling in.

Taking Instagram, McQuarrie playfully announced Cavill’s casting by tagging him in an image, saying “Had a thought. Curious if you’re interested in a role in the 6th installment of Mission: Impossible. No pressure.” to which Cavill responded “only if I get to fly for real”. You can read the full back and forth of their banter in the comments of the embedded post below.

 While Star Wars, Fast & Furious, and the various comic book movies get a lot of attention when it comes to box office deaw, Mission Impossible is still a big hitter franchise. Mission Impossible III had moderate reviews and saw some financial success, but the future of the franchise after Ghost Protocol was up in the air with rumors spread that Tom Cruise intended to leave the franchise, with Jeremy Renner’s William Brandt filling his shoes.

Things switched gears when Ghost Protocol, though, and Cruise stayed on, seeing both Ghost Protocol and Rogue Nation approach nearly $700 million at the box office, posting Rotten Tomatoes scores of 94% and 93% respectively.

While Cruise’s future with the franchise is still up in the air, Cavill represents another big name joining the cast who could hypothetically fill Ethan Hunt’s shoes in the future. Cavill already cut his teeth on the spy genre in Guy Richie’s Man From U.N.C.L.E. and he has the smooth persona and action chops necessary to make a great fit as an eventual lead in future Mission Impossible films, although it would be sad to see yet another lead role snatched away from Jeremy Renner.

Mission Impossible 6 is set to hit theaters July 27th, 2018, so more casting information and a start to production can be expected in the near future. With Tom Cruise attempting more and more insane stunts with each progressive movie, most recently riding the outside of an airplane in flight, this next installment will likely be expected to attempt some similarly crazy feat. It seems like McQuarrie may have found a winning formula for these movies, so it will be exciting to see it progress as we approach July 2018.