‘Titans’ Star Esai Morales Replaces Nicholas Hoult As ‘Mission: Impossible 7’ Villain

Esai Morales Titans Nicholas Hoult Mission Impossible 7 Tom Cruise

Titans star Esai Morales is replacing Nicholas Hoult as the villain of Tom Cruise’s Mission: Impossible 7.

Mission: Impossible 7 director Christopher McQuarrie took to Twitter this morning to announce that Titans star Esai Morales has joined the cast of the highly-anticipated Tom Cruise sequel by Paramount Pictures. Deadline later confirmed that Morales is playing a villain in the movie, replacing X-Men star Nicholas Hoult, who had to drop out of the project due to scheduling conflicts.

Paramount was forced to halt production on Mission: Impossible 7 in February due to the ongoing coronavirus outbreak. At the time, McQuarrie and the film’s cast and crew members were gearing up to begin a three-week shoot in Venice, Italy. The delay put Hoult in conflict with a prior obligation and the actor was replaced by Esai Morales.

https://twitter.com/chrismcquarrie/status/1263413004957298688

Esai Morales was recently seen in the second season of the hit DC Universe series Titans, playing the iconic comic book villain Slade Wilson, a.k.a. Deathstroke. The actor is also known for his work on Netflix’s Ozark and ABC’s NYPD Blue.

In addition to losing Nicholas Hoult, Paramount also had to delay Mission: Impossible 7 by four months because of the coronavirus shutdown. The film was originally slated to hit theaters in July 2021 but will now debut in November that same year.

Written and directed by Christopher McQuarrie, MI7 is set to star Tom Cruise, Rebecca Ferguson, Hayley Atwell, Pom Klementieff, Shea Whigham, Vanessa Kirby and Henry Czerny. Mission: Impossible 8 is also in the works at Paramount, with McQuarrie on board to return as writer and director.

Mission: Impossible 7 is currently scheduled to be released on November 19, 2021. Stay tuned for all the latest news regarding Esai Morales and the franchise, and be make sure to subscribe to Heroic Hollywood’s YouTube channel for content.

Source: Twitter

Michael Bezanidis

Michael Bezanidis

Michael is the Managing Editor of Heroic Hollywood. When he's not playing video games, he's usually writing about film and television.