Mission: Impossible 7 Director Shares Glimpse At Vanessa Kirby’s Return Following Her Oscar Nomination

Vanessa Kirby's White Widow in Mission: Impossible - Fallout

The nominations for the 93rd Academy Awards have been announced, and included the select group who’s in the the running for one of those golden trophies is Vanessa Kirby. She’ll compete in the Best Actress category for her performance as Martha Weiss in Pieces of a Woman, and in celebration of this honor, director Christopher McQuarrie has shared a look at Kirby’s return for Mission: Impossible 7 following her debut in the franchise several years back.

Vanessa Kirby starred in 2018’s Mission: Impossible - Fallout as the black market arms dealer Alanna Mitsopolis, a.k.a. the White Widow. She’ll be among the familiar faces reuniting with Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt in Mission: Impossible 7, and you can take a look at the below photo teasing what’s to come for her this time around.

A photo posted by on

Talk about killing two birds with one stone, as Christopher McQuarrie congratulated Vanessa Kirby for her Oscar nomination and gave Mission: Impossible fans another peek at the seventh movie. It’s unclear what’s happening in this scene, although it appears that the White Widow (who’s the daughter of Vanessa Redgrave’s Max, one of the villains from the first Mission: Impossible movie) is aboard a decorative train. That environment, plus the photo being in black and white, makes Kirby look like she’s a Hollywood starlet from Hollywood’s Golden Age.

Of course, Christopher McQuarrie’s Instagram page has been a prime destination for those interested in knowing how the next two Mission: Impossible movies are coming along, as evidenced just last week with the unveiling of five new castings. No details have been revealed yet on how Vanessa Kirby’s character factors into Mission: Impossible 7, although Alanna’s brother Zola, reprised by Frederick Schmidt, will be joining her again. Until told otherwise, it’d be fair to assume the siblings are still players in the criminal underworld rather than having given up their lawbreaking lifestyles and joined the Impossible Missions Force.

Like so many movies over the last year, Mission: Impossible 7 was impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in principal photography not kicking off until September and the movie’s being pushed back a few months. To be sure, there have been some additional issues/complications as Mission: Impossible 7 and Mission: Impossible 8 have shot back-to-back, but cameras continue to roll on this blockbuster endeavor, with or without the assistance of robots.

Along with Tom Cruise, Vanessa Kirby and Frederick Schmidt, Mission: Impossible 7’s other returning familiar faces include Ving Rhames as Luther Stickell, Simon Pegg as Benji Dunn, Rebecca Ferguson as Ilsa Faust, Angela Bassett as Erika Sloane and Henry Czerny as Eugene Kittridge. As for the newcomers, that lineup of actors include Hayley Atwell, Pom Klementieff, Shea Whigham, Esai Morales, Rob Delaney, Charles Parnell, Indira Varma, Mark Gatiss and Cary Elwes. Most of those folks will also take part in Mission: Impossible 8, Kirby included.

Mission: Impossible 7 drops in theaters on November 19, with Mission: Impossible 8 following on November 4, 2022. As for Vanessa Kirby’s Oscar nomination, you can find out if the wins the award or not when the Academy Awards unfold on April 25.

Adam Holmes
Senior Content Producer

Connoisseur of Marvel, DC, Star Wars, John Wick, MonsterVerse and Doctor Who lore, Adam is a Senior Content Producer at CinemaBlend. He started working for the site back in late 2014 writing exclusively comic book movie and TV-related articles, and along with branching out into other genres, he also made the jump to editing. Along with his writing and editing duties, as well as interviewing creative talent from time to time, he also oversees the assignment of movie-related features. He graduated from the University of Oregon with a degree in Journalism, and he’s been sourced numerous times on Wikipedia. He's aware he looks like Harry Potter and Clark Kent.