The cast of the upcoming back-to-back sequels in the Mission: Impossible franchise is already stacked. Tom Cruise is still leading the charge as IMF agent Ethan Hunt, and he’ll have Rebecca Ferguson back at his side as MI6 agent Ilsa Faust. But the sequels will also feature new cast members like Hayley Atwell, Pom Klementieff, Shea Whigham and Nicholas Hoult. Thankfully, it won’t be all new faces in the upcoming sequels though, as one of Ethan Hunt’s most reliable counterparts has been confirmed to return.
Simon Pegg will be part of at least the seventh installment of the upcoming Mission: Impossible franchise, reprising his role as Benji Dunn, the IMF tech guy turned field agent who always has the best gadgets, but doesn’t always use them as efficiently as he should.
Collider noticed Simon Pegg’s appearance on a Canadian show called Our City Tonight, and it was there that he confirmed Mission: Impossible 7 would be shooting this year. In an interview recorded in December, Pegg simply said, “I have another Mission: Impossible to start next year.” But he didn’t offer up any more details than that.
What’s most interesting about that is his lack of confirmation as having a role in both sequels. Most of the casting for the back-to-back missions coming in 2021 and 2022 has indicated whether or not new cast members will be in both movies, but Pegg seems to have only confirmed a role in the seventh installment. Could that spell doom for Benji? Or could he be knowingly playing coy so to avoid giving anything away by telling audiences he’ll be in the eighth movie too?
Benji has had an interesting road as a character in the Mission: Impossible franchise. First appearing in Mission: Impossible 3 as a tech guy who helped Ethan Hunt from the confines of the IMF offices, Benji has since become an invaluable field agent who offers a bit of comic relief in both his occasional missteps and in his frantic reaction to Ethan Hunt’s tendency to put himself in dangerous situations at every turn. Ving Rhames has also been beside him as Luther Stickell, but we haven’t gotten confirmation of his return yet.
Surely Mission: Impossible 7 has to end with some kind of cliffhanger, otherwise shooting back-to-back wouldn’t really serve much of a purpose. The question is what kind of danger lies ahead for Ethan Hunt and the IMF team to face? Mission: Impossible – Fallout dealt with Ethan Hunt’s past yet again, so maybe the sequel can dig a little further into that. It would be one hell of a surprise to bring back Thandie Newton as Nyah Nordoff-Hall from Mission: Impossible II or something.
Whatever director Christopher McQuarrie has in store for us, we’ll be there. Mission: Impossible 7 arrives in theaters on July 23, 2021 and Mission: Impossible 8 will follow on August 5, 2022.
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