After 25 years, “Mission: Impossible” fans may finally learn what happened to William Donloe, the original film’s CIA analyst who was meant to be watching highly confidential documents before Ethan Hunt dives from the ceiling and snatches them in the now-famous sequence.
“Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning” writer Christopher McQuarrie disclosed on his Instagram account Wednesday that actor Rolf Saxon, who played William Donloe in the first “Mission: Impossible,” will return in next year’s franchise conclusion, “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Two.”
McQuarrie posted a photo of Saxon’s character, who has grown a beard after the events of the first “Mission: Impossible.” Donloe was sacked and moved to a polar substation in Alaska after Tom Cruise’s super spy Ethan Hunt hanged himself from a cable and plummeted down from the roof of the high-security CIA vault to grab the NOC list.
McQuarrie also revealed earlier on Wednesday that Inuit actor Lucy Tulugarjuk would be joining the cast. Could the final “Mission: Impossible” film return to its roots and relate back to the first film? She’s clad in a warm, heavy parka on what appears to be a snowy base.
Hannah Waddingham, star of “Ted Lasso,” and Emmy winner, will also join the cast of “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Two,” McQuarrie said earlier this month on Instagram. The film will be released in theaters on June 28, 2024, less than a year after “Part One,” which will be released this summer on July 14, 2023.
Saxon isn’t the only returning member of the “Mission: Impossible” franchise. The seventh and penultimate film reintroduces Henry Czerny as Eugene Kittridge, the former IMF director who returns from the original “Mission: Impossible.” Vanessa Kirby will also play Alanna Mitsopolis, the daughter of Max Mitsopolis, who was played by Vanessa Redgraves in the first “Mission: Impossible.”