Despite the high-stakes nature of the ultimate antagonist, co-writer/director Christopher McQuarrie reveals Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One’s villain recasting led to the whole movie being changed. The latest installment in the hit action franchise saw Cruise’s Ethan Hunt going up against a villain from his past named Gabriel, who looks to gain complete control over a mysterious artificial intelligence known as The Entity. Nicholas Hoult was originally cast as the split Dead Reckoning story’s main antagonist, though would be recast with Ozark’s Esai Morales due to scheduling conflicts for Hoult.
Following the movie’s acclaimed release, Christopher McQuarrie appeared on the latest episode of the Script Apart podcast to discuss Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One. In reflecting on the sequel’s lengthy development process, the co-writer/director opened up about recasting Nicholas Hoult’s original villain, revealing the Renfield star’s casting came from a failed Top Gun: Maverick audition in which Cruise still enjoyed his effort, though his pandemic-driven exit resulted in the entire movie being changed. See what McQuarrie shared below:
The Entity didn’t exist as the Entity when the story began. In fact, neither did [supporting villain] Gabriel. Nick Hoult was originally cast as the villain in our film, because star and producer Tom Cruise had really liked Nick Hoult in the audition for Top Gun: Maverick… Cruise didn’t think he was right for that movie, but he recognized that Hoult was a supremely talented actor. And so we cast Nick based solely on that, not really knowing where our story was going. Dead Reckoning Part One] would’ve been a very different movie if the pandemic had not taken Nick out of the running. We replaced Nick with Esai Morales, who I had seen on Ozark — I thought he was a really great villain. That opened up a world of possibility about protagonist Ethan Hunt’s past because Esai and Tom are about the same age… that opened up a door into this story that we still didn’t understand what it was.
Editor’s Note: This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, and the movie covered here would not exist without the labor of the writers and actors in both unions.
Why M:I 7’s Reworking Helped Dead Reckoning
With the height of the COVID-19 pandemic weighing down on the early stages of production, Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One endured a number of hurdles through its development that resulted in a variety of changes. One of the most notable was that of the movie’s flashback sequence showing a young Hunt in his prior interaction with Gabriel that resulted in the death of the woman he cared for, Marie. McQuarrie originally had ideas for a de-aged Cruise and Julia Roberts playing the character, though it proved too costly and was concerned it would be distracting for audiences.
Even once the movie got through its rocky production, McQuarrie went through a variety of changes in Mission: Impossible –Dead Reckoning Part One’s test screenings. The filmmaker recently confirmed that more of Marie and Ethan’s backstory was explored in the sequel, but that a “brutal” email received from one of his filmmaker friends in attendance after the fact led to him cutting the majority of her scenes, among other things.
While it’s unclear whether these cut scenes will see the light of day, a change in the villain plans for Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One ultimately proved the better for it and its in-production sequel. The Entity is a particularly timely threat as Hollywood’s actors and writers guilds remain on strike over concerns of AI overtaking their jobs, and in creating a villain with more personal stakes for Ethan than in prior installments, the reworking from Hoult’s recasting has made for a promising second half of the story to continue McQuarrie’s win streak in the writer and director’s chair.