It looks like Christopher McQuarrie has seen fit to gift us an early Mission: Impossible 7 present in the form of a casting announcement. The upcoming seventh film in the Mission: Impossible saga stars franchise staple Tom Cruise with Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation and M:I – Fallout alum Rebecca Ferguson also returning. Additionally, the franchise is adding seasoned action-by-way-of-the-MCU alums Hayley Atwell and Pom Klementieff for the next M:I mission.

On Friday, McQuarrie announced via his Twitter Shea Whigham would be joining the fun, mostly new, and always formidable cast of the seventh Mission: Impossible movie. McQuarrie, who will direct M:I 7 and has written the script to boot, captioned a black-and-white headshot of Whigham with a very interesting caption: “You won’t see him coming…” Details on Whigham’s character have yet to be revealed but the caption seems to hint at the Joker and Vice Principals actor possibly playing the film’s villain — a big surprise considering Whigham often plays salt-of-the-earth, blue-collar, good guys. Then again, it’s entirely possible Whigham a new member of Ethan Hunt’s (Cruise) team — we certainly wouldn’t see that coming considering Hunt’s most recent team included characters played by Simon Pegg and Ving Rhames.

Details about M:I 7 are largely unknown as of December 2019. Production has yet to kick into high gear and the team, as you can see above, is still coming together. McQuarrie has quickly become as integral a part in the nearly 30-year-old M:I franchise as Cruise is in recent years. The writer/director boarded back in 2015 with Rogue Nation as the writer and director. Since then, he has steered the franchise and will continue to do so, in both roles, through Mission: Impossible 8 in 2022.

Mission: Impossible 7 is currently scheduled for release on July 23, 2021. For more, make sure you check out our round-up of the best action scenes of 2019, which includes the nail-biting Burj Khalifa climb from Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol.