In a recent Instagram post, Hayley Atwell (Captain America: The First Avenger; Avengers: Endgame) showed off some of the impressive "backbone" she's built since she started training for Paramount's highly anticipated Mission: Impossible 7, where she'll star opposite 3x Academy Award-nominated megastar Tom Cruise (Top Gun: Maverick; Edge of Tomorrow).
The film is currently on an extened production hiatus due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, but is tentatively scheduled to resume shooting in early September, if not sooner. Despite no filming, Atwell along with co-stars Pom Klementieff (Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2; Avengers: Endgame) and Vanessa Kirby (Mission: Impossible - Fallout; Hobbs & Shaw), amongst others, have been staying in touch and virtually working out together as per their individualized training regimens.
As you can see below, Atwell has put on quite a bit of muscle for the part, which will undoubtedly be her most physically demanding role to date. Details on her mysterious character are being kept under wraps for now, but director Chris McQuarrie did recently describe her as a "destructive force of nature."
Mission: Impossible 7 & 8 are headlined by Tom Cruise (Top Gun: Maverick) as IMF ace Ethan Hunt, as well as fellow returning stars Rebecca Ferguson (Mission: Impossible - Fallout) as Ilsa Faust, Simon Pegg (Mission: Impossible - Fallout) as Benji Dunn, Ving Rhames (Mission: Impossible - Fallout) as Luther Stickell, and Vanessa Kirby (Mission: Impossible - Fallout) as the White Widow. Newcomers to the storied action franchise include Hayley Atwell (Avengers: Endgame), Pom Klementieff (Avengers: Endgame), Shea Whigham (Joker) and Nicholas Hoult (X-Men: Dark Phoenix), who is rumored to be playing the villain. Henry Czerny (Sharp Objects) has also been confirmed to reprise his role as Eugene Kittridge from the first film.
There isn't much information regarding who else will make up Ethan Hunt's team for his seventh and eighth adventures, but fans still holding out hope that some combination of Jeremy Renner (William Brandt), Angela Bassett (Erica Sloane), Paula Patton (Jane Carter) and/or Maggie Q (Zhen Lei) will also return. There have also been rumblings that the likes of Henry Cavill (August Walker) and Alec Baldwin (Alan Hunley) may also be back in some capacity as McQuarrie recently teased, "Any character, dead or alive, is fair game to return."
Both sequels are expected to film back-to-back, with Mission: Impossible 7 set to light the fuse in theaters on November 19, 2021, while its sequel, Mission: Impossible 8, will open the following fall on November 4, 2022.