Yesterday Star Himesh Patel Joins Christoper Nolan’s Tenet

Cameras started rolling on Christopher Nolan’s latest event film months ago, but the mysterious Tenet is still adding stars: Yesterday breakout Himesh Patel has joined the film’s cast in an undisclosed role. The rising English actor reportedly “nabbed one of the last roles in the film,” per Variety, swelling the ranks of a production that already stars John David Washington, Elizabeth Debicki, Robert Pattinson, Clémence Poésy, Michael Caine, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Kenneth Branagh and Dimple Kapadia.

Little else is known about Tenet at this point, save that it’s an epic action film set in the world of international (and, knowing Nolan, intertemporal) espionage. The film’s enigmatic first teaser was secretly screened ahead of showings of Warner Bros. blockbuster Hobbs & Shaw and has yet to hit the web, though a couple of bootlegs have made their way onto YouTube. Nolan writes and directs Tenet, which he’s shooting on location across seven countries, using both IMAX and 70mm film. Collaborators include director of photography Hoyte van Hoytema van Hoytema, production designer Nathan Crowley, editor Jennifer Lame, costume designer Jeffrey Kurland, visual effects supervisor Andrew Jackson and composer Ludwig Göransson.

As for Patel, Yesterday, directed by Danny Boyle and released this summer, was his feature film debut, and an impressive one at that. He starred in the critical and commercial success as Jack, a would-be musician who rockets to stardom after a supernatural occurrence renders him the only person on earth who remembers (and therefore can claim to have created) the music of The Beatles. He’ll next appear opposite Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones in Amazon Studios adventure film The Aeronauts (Dec. 6), as well as in the BBC’s miniseries adaptation of The Luminaries and HBO’s Avenue 5, a new space-comedy series from Emmy-winning Veep creator Armando Iannucci, that also stars Hugh Laurie, Josh Gad and Zach Woods. Even if his role in Tenet turns out to be a small one—which seems likely, given his addition this late in the game—it’s safe to say Patel’s arrow is pointing way, way up.

Production on Tenet is ongoing ahead of its opening on July 17, 2020. Brush up on everything we know about the film so far here and stay tuned for further updates.