Few actors have ever been as synonymous with a film franchise as Tom Cruise is with “Mission: Impossible.” But over the course of his decades of playing Ethan Hunt, Cruise has been flanked by a cast of supporting players that have become integral parts of the series.
One of the most recognizable faces is Simon Pegg, who has played Benji Dunn in every film since 2006’s “Mission: Impossible III.” In a new interview with The Independent, Pegg reflected on the working relationship he has built with Cruise over the course of five films. And while he had high praise for Cruise’s action superstardom, he predicted that the “Magnolia” star will eventually pivot away from blockbusters and pursue other creative opportunities.
“I don’t know,” Pegg said when asked about the possibility of working with Cruise after the “Mission: Impossible” franchise eventually ends. “I love working with Tom, and he’s really good fun to work with but I get the feeling that when Tom goes off and does other things, it’ll be a completely different thing. He has a whole other age to come in his career. He’s a very good actor, a very, very good actor — as we’ve seen in ‘Magnolia’ and ‘Jerry Maguire’… I think when he finally stops jumping off shit, he’ll have a third act. And yes, it’d be nice to be a part of that.”
While Cruise has made it clear that he has no plans to step away from the “Mission: Impossible” franchise, his close collaborator Christopher McQuarrie has teased that they are developing a “gnarlier” film together that would mark a major departure from Cruise’s franchise roles.
“It’s kind of under wraps. It has neither a fuse nor a fuselage,” McQuarrie said of the secretive project in 2022. “It’s something we’ve talked about for a really long time. It’s way outside of what you’re used to seeing Tom do. It’s the kind of stuff I really love. It’s a little bit more in my wheelhouse. And yet it takes everything we’ve learned on this journey, which is making movies more and more about emotion and real emotional experiences.”
