Whats it like turning down Tom Cruise? Just ask Nicholas Hoult. In a new interview with The Guardian, the Mad Max: Fury Road and The Menu star revealed that Cruise personally called him to join the Mission: Impossible franchise for its two-part finale, which will kick off this summer with the seventh installment, Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One. Hoult accepted the role, which reports claimed was a huge one as it was the finales main villain.
Hoult was cast in Mission: Impossible 7 in January 2020, but by May 2020 he was exiting the movie and being replaced by Esai Morales. According to Hoult, his contractual obligation to his Hulu period comedy The Great got in the way of him joining the Mission: Impossible franchise. Perhaps it wouldnt have been such a gut-punch had Hoult not been coming off two rejections from other major Hollywood franchises.
I screen-tested for Batman and didnt get it, Hoult said. Screen-tested for Top Gun, didnt get it. Then I got the call from Tom Cruise: Hey, how about Mission Impossible? Ok. Got it. Then I had to drop out because I was already attached to do some more of The Great.
Hoult lost out on The Batman, Top Gun: Maverick and Mission: Impossible 7 all in a row. The Batman director Matt Reeves selected Robert Pattinson for his Batman/Bruce Wayne, and the two are set to go into production on The Batman: Part II later this year. The first film earned $770 million at the worldwide box office.
While Hoult did not disclose which Top Gun: Maverick role he auditioned for, it was most likely Bradley Rooster Bradshaw (Miles Teller) or Jake Hangman Seresin (Glen Powell). While he didnt get the role, Cruise clearly liked what he saw in Hoult and offered him Mission: Impossible 7 instead. Maverick went on to become of the top-grossing movies of all time with $1.49 billion worldwide.
Hoult currently stars opposite Nicolas Cage in the Dracula action comedy Renfield, now playing in theaters nationwide from Universal Pictures.