Angela Bassett Joins Mission: Impossible 6

Angela Bassett will play Mission: Impossible 6’s new CIA director

Mission: Impossible 6 has today added a new CIA director that will be played by Angela Bassett. Deadline has the news, reporting that the Academy Award nominee is joining the franchise’s latest adventure. Fans will recall that the previous Mission: Impossible CIA director, Alec Baldwin’s Alan Hunley, was promoted to IMF Secretary at the end of the last film, Rogue Nation.

Still without an official title, Paramount Pictures and Skydance‘s sixth Mission: Impossible film will see the return of Tom Cruise, Rebecca Ferguson, Simon Pegg, Sean Harris and Alec Baldwin. Joining Angela Bassett as franchise newcomers are Vanessa Kirby and Henry Cavill.

The Mission: Impossible franchise launched in 1966 with the original CBS television series, which ran for seven seasons and 171 episodes. Mission: Impossible returned in 1988 with a rebooted series on ABC. It failed to find an audience, however, and was cancelled after two seasons. It was nearly a decade later that the Tom Cruise-led Mission: Impossible feature film would turn the small screen spy series into a hugely-successful cinematic franchise.

Christopher McQuarrie, who previously helmed Rogue Nation, is once again writing and directing the sequel. His return to the franchise marks the first time a director has helmed more than one Mission: Impossible film. Brian De Palma directed the original adaptation, which was followed by sequels directed by John Woo, J.J, Abrams and Brad Bird.

Angela Bassett was on the big screen in last year’s London Has Fallen, but she most recently delivered a memorable small screen performance guest starring on the second season of Netflix‘s Master of None.

Mission: Impossible 6 hits the big screen July 27, 2018.

(Photo by Gary Gershoff/WireImage)