Seeing as "Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part Two" is still under production, it's all but possible that Angela Bassett could return as Erika Sloane. Of course, nothing is confirmed as of yet, but it certainly would be a welcome return. One can only imagine how Sloane will react to the chaos that Ethan Hunt, Benji (Simon Pegg), and Luther (Ving Rhames) have gotten up to since her absence. Hopefully, a future appearance explains her absence considering Bassett's role in "Dead Reckoning Part One" would have been important.
During his chat with Variety, director Christopher McQuarrie revealed that Bassett would have shown up in the early minutes of "Dead Reckoning Part One," where various American intelligence officers are discussing the nefarious nature of the Entity. "It was interesting," the director teased. "She was going to be the head of the CIA, she would've been in that room with all the other heads of the intelligence community that you meet."
It's interesting how McQuarrie notes that Bassett would have been the CIA Director, a role she previously occupied in "Fallout." In "Dead Reckoning Part One," the CIA is run by Eugene Kittridge (Henry Czerny), a character who first appeared in the original "Mission: Impossible." Would Czerny have not been brought back if Bassett was in the film? That's anyone's guess. Czerny previously revealed to Uproxx that McQuarrie was interested in bringing Kittridge back several movies ago. Seeing as most of the recent "Mission: Impossible" films feature on-the-fly dialogue and frequent narrative switch-ups, it's difficult to imagine what Bassett's return would have looked like and how it would have impacted the "Dead Reckoning" narrative.
Here's hoping that "Dead Reckoning Part Two" features both Sloane and Kittridge teaming up to reel Hunt in.
