There has been a lot of talking recently about toxicity in fandom, particularly after the polarizing response from fans to the most recent two Star Wars movies. Simon Pegg is an actor who knows his way around fandom and he’s weighed in on the issue.
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Pegg’s latest film is Mission: Impossible – Fallout and when asked about these kinds of fans by Comic Book Movie, he says he hasn’t seen that kind of thing from the Mission: Impossible fanbase.
“I’ve never experienced it with Mission: Impossible fans and I think it’s because Mission: Impossible doesn’t really have those schisms within its fanbase,” Pegg said. “I don’t think it has a fanbase in that same respect that comic book movies and science fiction does. I think maybe it’s not susceptible or vulnerable to that kind of divisiveness.”
But Mission: Impossible isn’t Pegg’s only blockbuster film series. He also plays Montgomery Scott in the Star Trek movies and has even shown some interest in making a Marvel movie. Still, he doesn’t seem too concerned about disgruntled fans.
“I don’t think it’s important really,” he says. “This is a job and you just do it and hope that you can do it again. I think the minute you start engaging with that sort of stuff, it’s just a waste of time…and life!”
That’s not to say that Pegg doesn’t care about the fans though. Pegg co-wrote the film Star Trek Beyond and in a previous interview, he explained how he tried to write that film to give fans more of what they wanted after they were very vocally disappointed with the previous movie, Star Trek Into Darkness.
“The thing with Beyond, I think the time is sort of born that out in terms of its popularity and the constant feedback I get from the Star Trek community, which seems very grateful, and that’s who we… ‘Cause I felt they were done a slight disservice, maybe, with Into Darkness, ’cause it was quite… It was divisive, I think. And so [co-writer Doug Jung] and I tried to sort of pull it back to almost a giant episode was our agreement that we came up with,” Pegg said.
Do you agree with Pegg’s thoughts on fandom? Let us know in the comments!
Pegg will be back for Star Trek 4, which will reportedly begin filming in early 2019.
