In the summer of 2005, Simon Pegg arrived on the Paramount lot to film a supporting role for J.J. Abrams and Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible III. Knowing that the director and star-producer were fans of his preceding zombie comedy, Shaun of the Dead (2004), Pegg thought his role as Imf technician Benji Dunn was just a way to satisfy their temporary curiosity. At no point did he think that he’d still be playing Dunn two decades later in the franchise’s eighth installment, Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning.
“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 tells The Hollywood Reporter in support of The Final Reckoning’s May 23 theatrical release. “And a year or so after Mission III came out, I got an email from J.J. that said, ‘How…
