Angela Bassett Join Mission: Impossible 6

Screen Rant

Mission: Impossible 6 Cast Adds Angela Bassett

By Matt Dolloff

Published May 19, 2017

Angela Bassett is the latest addition to the cast of Mission: Impossible 6, joining Tom Cruise in the franchise's next chapter.

Mission: Impossible 6 has officially added Angela Bassett to the cast. The Tom Cruise-led movie franchise has been on quite the run in recent years, producing a string of successful sequels led by Cruise as Ethan Hunt. The megastar has also consistently been buoyed by a strong supporting cast, including Ving Rhames as Luther Stickell (the only other actor to appear in all five movies) and Simon Pegg as Benji Dunn.

Rogue Nation additions Rebecca Ferguson and Aled Baldwin are also expected to return in 2018's Mission: Impossible 6, which is well into the production phase. But like most of the cast throughout the Mission: Impossible movie series, there will be some turnover. Unfortunately, Jeremy Renner is among the casting casualties for M:I 6, as he will be filming both Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers 4 as Hawkeye. But the M:I 6 cast just got a strong veteran addition in Angela Bassett.

As reported by Deadline on Thursday, Bassett has been added to the cast alongside newcomers Henry Cavill and Vanessa Kirby. Bassett will reportedly play the "C.I.A. director." Her character will replace the role once filled by Baldwin's character Alan Hunley, who is now Secretary of the Impossible Mission Force. No other details were revealed about Bassett's character beyond being director of the C.I.A.

Bassett, a Golden Globe winner and Academy Award nominee for 1993's What's Love Got to Do With It, has been as busy as ever in the past two years. She is fresh off her fourth season on American Horror Story and has appeared on the big screen in London Has Fallen and Chi-Raq. She appears in an episode of this year's second season of Master of None on Netflix.

2018 is shaping up to be a huge year for Bassett. Along with her role in Mission: Impossible 6, she will make her Marvel Studios debut as T'Challa's mother in Black Panther after appearing in D.C. Entertainment's Green Lantern in 2011. Bassett will likely be more serious and commanding in her role as the C.I.A. director, while Kirby will reportedly play Hunt's love interest. Regardless of how the story turns out in M:I 6, Bassett has a good chance of being a strong addition to the cast.

Mission: Impossible 6 has to live up to a high standard set by the last two installments, Rogue Nation and Ghost Protocol. The series seems to only keep getting better, as J.J. Abrams' Mission: Impossible III helped propel the franchise to surprisingly great heights with three movies and three different directors. It remains to be seen if Rogue Nation director Christopher McQuarrie can go 2-for-2, but continued thrills and Cruise's star power should be able to carry it to success.