Simon Pegg has come a long way since his days in Shaun of the Dead and has cemented himself as one of the most prominent characters in the Mission: Impossible franchise. However, the actor’s inclusion in Mission: Impossible was not guaranteed from the get-go, as the production for the third installment in the Tom Cruise-led franchise was far from smooth.
Considering the 2000s witnessed some of the biggest blockbusters in cinema history, Paramount was adamant too about boosting the Cruise-led IP to the top. But the third film would suffer major delays as it would go under major recasting and change in its direction.
Simon Pegg wasn’t always on board with the idea of working in Mission: Impossible
During the wild development of Mission: Impossible 3, the keys to this film juggled from one director to another until J.J. Abrams was finally confirmed to lead the threequel. However, with Abrams’ arrival, he had his own story to tell and rejected the original script for the movie and started crafting his own take on the threequel. But this led to major recasting and scheduling delays, which would push Carrie-Anne Moss and Scarlett Johansson away from the project, who was initially onboard with the project.
But being a massive fan of Shaun of the Dead, J.J. Abrams would bring Simon Pegg to the threequel as Ethan Hunt’s sidekick, resulting in Ricky Gervais’ exit from the role. On getting the role of Benji Dunn during the threequel’s tumultuous production, Simon Pegg reflected on the irony of the situation as he once joked he was not going to do MI 3 and never shift away from his roots. He explained,
“So it was a huge irony that I’d said, ‘I’m not going to go off and do this. But then, at that time, there was this attitude that anyone who went off to Hollywood was betraying their roots in some sense or selling out. It’s not like you cross some misty bridge at night and never come home again.”
Amid the recasting and the change in direction that kept on pushing the film’s release, Cruise would then take a major pay cut to keep the production on, and in 2006 the film would finally hit the big screens.
We might finally witness Scarlett Johansson and Tom Cruise unite on the big screen
Although Scarlett Johansson might’ve missed out on the threequel due to scheduling conflicts, it might not be too long before we finally witness her and Tom Cruise together on the big screen. Both the actors haven’t backed away from commending each other, and the two did express their interest to work together. With the Mission: Impossible franchise standing strong even after 2 decades since its inception, it’s reasonable to hope that Johansson might be the next big name to star in this franchise.
Despite the production hell that the film went through, J.J. Abrams’s take on the threequel did receive decent reception but was unable to surpass the box office of the sequel. However, the film did make Simon Pegg a prominent part of this franchise, and even years later, he is still going strong in these movies.
Mission: Impossible 3 is available to stream on Paramount Plus.
Source: The Guardian
