There’s good news and bad news surrounding production of ‘Mission: Impossible 7’, as the postponement of filming thanks to the coronavirus pandemic has led to a scheduling conflict for Nicholas Hoult, who was set to appear as the main villain opposite Tom Cruise. That’s the bad news, obviously.

The good news is that they’ve found a very worthy replacement to take his spot – Esai Morales AKA Del From Ozark.

Deadline reported the following:

When Mission: Impossible 7 starts production in late summer or early fall, I expect that you will see that Esai Morales has joined the cast. In place of Nicholas Hoult, who was cast in a villain role earlier this year.

This is a bit of a bummer because it would have been cool seeing Nicholas Hoult (a Brit no less) going up against Tom Cruise, but having Esai Morales replace him is more than a decent consolation. He was a great villain in Ozark and has that sort of quiet intensity and intimidating presence where you can just sense he’s capable of doing very bad things to people.

It will change the dynamic quite dramatically though because Hoult would have been a younger villain taking on the hero, whereas Morales is the same age as Cruise so it will be veteran Vs veteran. Will be interesting to see how it plays out. Can’t wait!

To watch Tom Cruise literally hang off the side of a plane to film a Mission: Impossible stunt, click HERE. Looks like Del better bring his A game.