Simon Pegg talks Benji Dunn's evolution, Rebecca Ferguson's absense, and more for Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning (2025)

When Spaced and Shaun of the Dead star Simon Pegg signed on to play the IMF technician Benji Dunn in 2006’s Mission: Impossible III, he never thought he’d continue to clack keys and crack wise while saving Ethan Hunt’s bacon more than two decades and six movies later.

“I went to Hollywood for the first time, and I did my little bit on the Paramount lot. I then went home and figured that was it,” Pegg toldThe Hollywood Reporterduring the lead-up to the release ofMission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning. “And a year or so afterMission IIIcame out, I got an email from J.J. that said, ‘How would you feel if Benji was a field agent?’ And I think I replied, ‘I would feel good.'”

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoningtellsthe second half of the story that began inMission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning, with Ethan Hunt out to destroy an AI system called The Entity, which is housed in a sunken Russian stealth submarine.Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation,Mission: Impossible – Fallout, andDead Reckoningwriter/directorChristopher McQuarrieremains at the helm, working from a screenplay he crafted with Erik Jendresen. The official synopsis is very simple:Our lives are the sum of our choices. Tom Cruise is Ethan Hunt inMission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning.

Speaking with THR, Pegg touched on missing his Mission: Impossible co-star Rebecca Ferguson, whose beloved character, Ilsa Faust, perished in Dead Reckoning. According to Pegg, he and Ferguson became thick as thieves since the Silo star joined the franchise with 2015’s Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation.

“Rebecca was my buddy, and I love her very much. We were always there for each other when things got super crazy in the middle of this madhouse circus thatMission: Impossiblecan sometimes be,” Pegg told THR. “The one great thing about the [Covid] restrictions that were put upon us duringDeadReckoningwas that the new cast bonded very, very quickly. So by the time we came toFinalReckoning… that soothed that particular loss a little bit. But it was a tough one with Rebecca because she’s an amazing actor.”

To address the elephant in the room, Pegg spoke with The Hollywood Reporter about the “Final” part of the upcoming film’s title, essentially saying all good things come to an end.

“It’s not calledFinalfor nothing,” Pegg teased. “It feels likeanend to me. McQ expertly went into the past and looked at the preceding movies, and he saw how he could find an origin for the Entity,” Pegg shares. “So that all wraps up in this film, and for me, it does feel like an end.”

Pegg also spoke with the outlet about Benji taking a larger role in The Final Reckoning as Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt spends much of the film on a solo mission. When asked if stepping into a more focused spotlight changed anything for him, Pegg said, “Yeah, I am always in awe of McQ’s ability to play the long game. He never wanted Benji to become too much too soon. When McQ came in to fixGhost Protocol, there was a scene in the [existing] script where Benji swung in on a rope with a machine gun and saved the day. He immediately cut that scene, and I remember being pissed about it, saying, “Hey, why did you cut that? That was a cool moment.” And McQ said, “Why did you like that scene?” And I said, “Well, I wanted Benji to do something cool.” And he said, “Okay.” He then wrote the scene where I save Jeremy Renner’s character, William Brandt, from the guy he’s fighting with by shooting him. And it was a much better, much more character-oriented moment because Benji was new in the field. He didn’t have much experience. So we saw him do something surprising, but it wasn’t unbelievable in that it exceeds the realms of his capabilities at that point.

McQ then waited two films before Benji finally got to wear a mask in the field, and he always made it so that Benji never did something that felt out of character. And it wasn’t until this film when he was finally in a position to take charge of a team. Ethan told him, “You’re ready for this,” and it just felt honest and true. So I really loved that because it felt like I’d played a 20-year game here, and the reward was for Benji to be fully realized as an agent and as a capable and competent leader. It took 20 years, but he got there in the end, and I’m glad we took that long.”

Thankfully, Mission: Impossible fans won’t need to wait long to find out if The Final Reckoning is indeed final, as the film explodes in theaters this weekend, beginning May 23, 2025. Meanwhile, our Editor-in-Chief, Chris Bumbray, reviewed Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning for the site, saying, “If this is the end for the IMF, one can never say Cruise didn’t give this franchise his all, and this ends it on a satisfying note. If it falls slightly short of the others, it’s simply because the bar has been set so high.”