The adrenaline-fueled “Mission: Impossible 8” is currently filming, and Paramount‘s spy actioner has added a new actor to the cast. Katy O’Brian, the breakout actress from A24’s lesbian thriller “Love Lies Bleeding,” has nabbed a part in the Tom Cruise-led franchise from writer/director Christopher McQuarrie. This casting update comes to us from Deadline as the up-and-comer has been amassing various genre/franchise parts, including playing a minor villain in “The Mandalorian” series, Marvel’s “Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania,” and Amblin’s “Twister” reboot, “Twisters.”

McQuarrie is known for selecting badass actors for his recent string of sequels focusing on Ethan Hunt’s IMF teams as the latest installment focused on a new artificial intelligence threat called The Entity. There is an expectation that the eighth untitled installment (formerly known as “Dead Reckoning – Part Two”) will see Ving Rhames, Henry Czerny, Simon Pegg, Vanessa Kirby, Esai Morales, Hayley Atwell, Shea Whigham, and Pom Klementieff reprising their roles.

O’Brian joins fellow new additions such as Holt McCallany (“Wrath of Man”), Nick Offerman (“Civil War”), Janet McTeer (“Ozark”), and Hannah Waddingham (“The Fall Guy”).

Paramount has given “Mission: Impossible” a prime release date of May 23, 2025, after multiple rounds of delays stemming from scheduling shifts, and the first film being shot during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and extending the production length. While the studio and creatives really haven’t talked about the future of the franchise, there is a shot that this could be the final outing for Ethan Hunt as Cruise is looking to expand his relationship with Warner Bros. (a long-gestating sequel to Doug Liman’s “Edge of Tomorrow” assumed to be part of those plans) and is expected to shoot “Top Gun 3” in the near future.

SOURCE: DEADLINE