Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One director Christopher McQuarrie teases the film’s mysterious new villain played by Esai Morales. Expected to serve as the penultimate entry in the franchise, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One brings back Tom Cruise’s superspy Ethan Hunt to face off against a new threat with the help of some familiar faces. Although Henry Czerny’s Eugene Kittridge is seemingly returning as an antagonistic force, Morales’ character will be the upcoming film’s central villain figure.
Ahead of the Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One release date this summer, McQuarrie offers up new details on Morales’ villain in a recent interview with EW. According to the director, Morales’ character is actually somehow connected to Hunt’s past. Check out McQuarrie’s full comment below:
“I can tell you that he’s definitely the antagonist in our story, or rather he is one of the antagonists in our story. He’s something of an enigma. You discover more about him over the course of the two movies. There’s definitely more to him than meets the eye and he’s something of a ghost of the past.”
Fallout Creates A Big Villain Problem For Mission: Impossible 7 & 8
Although perhaps not in the highest echelon of Mission: Impossible movies, Mission: Impossible 3 featured a villain played by the late Philip Seymour Hoffman. Hoffman’s villain, Owen Davian, arguably remains the most chilling and effective antagonist in the franchise to date, but his position was finally challenged with the release of Mission: Impossible – Fallout. The sixth film sees the return of Solomon Lane (Sean Harris) and also brings Henry Cavill’s formidable August Walker into the mix as well.
Lane remains a slippery individual in the film and poses a serious threat to millions around the world, but it’s Walker’s brute strength that really shines through. Walker remains the most physically challenging opponent Hunt has ever faced off against and his passion for worldwide destruction with Lane means the forces of antagonism in Mission: Impossible – Fallout mark a franchise high.
With the former entry representing such a high in terms of its villains, Morales certainly has big shoes to fill in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One. Little is known currently about his motivations or his abilities as an antagonist, but the Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One trailer has already teased that he will face off against Hunt in a fistfight atop a moving train. With Morales now confirmed to return in Mission: Impossible 8 as well, the franchise is certainly treating him like the biggest threat Hunt has faced off against yet.
Source: EW
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This story originally appeared on Screenrant
