Simon Pegg Was In Star Wars, See Who He Played
Did you know it was him?
This article is more than 2 years old
Simon Pegg has never been shy about his nerd love for comics, science fiction, and more. Long before he was more recognizable on U.S. screens, the actor was delivering a now infamous anti-Jar-Jar-Binks tirade on the British sitcom Spaced. Since then, Pegg has gotten the chance to star in some of his favorite childhood franchises, including succeeding the late James Doohan as Star Trek‘s miracle-working engineer Scotty. But you might not know that along with The Boys, Mission: Impossible, and other popular franchises, Pegg actually appeared in a Star Wars movie, though you wouldn’t recognize his face or even his voice.
The live-action role Simon Pegg landed for 2015’s Star Wars: Episode VII — The Force Awakens was definitely against type. Instead of his usual fumbling everyman, Pegg played the shady junk dealer Unkar Plutt on Jakku. Unkar is the large, ugly alien who Rey (Daisy Ridley) gives her scavenged junk in return for food early in the film. He tries to pay her off with a lot more portions for the droid BB-8, but she refuses. Unkar Plutt is the one who sends the thugs after her, and the one she steals the Millennium Falcon from to escape the First Order.
Unkar Plutt originally had a little bit more time in The Force Awakens, and it would have given Simon Pegg the chance to participate in something referenced — but never seen — way back in 1978’s A New Hope. In a deleted scene, Plutt is in Maz Kanata’s castle on Takodana when the heroes arrive. He spots Rey and confronts her about stealing the Falcon, but his threats and accusations are interrupted by a protective Chewbacca who — as Han Solo (Harrison Ford) said he could way back in A New Hope — rips off Plutt’s arm and tosses it onto a nearby card table. You can see that deleted scene below.
As reported by Collider, while his part as Unkar Plutt didn’t take up that much time on screen, Simon Pegg went through a lot to make it happen. CGI was used partly to realize his character, but he wasn’t in a motion capture suit. Pegg had to wear a large, heavy, thick costume while filming in the deserts of Abu Dhabi where the temperatures were around 122 degrees. He described milky-colored sweat pouring out of his costume every time he removed it. But for a lifelong Star Wars fan to become a part of the mythology, it still seems a small price to pay.
The Force Awakens isn’t the only Star Wars work Simon Pegg has enjoyed. He voiced Unkar Plutt for the Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens video game, and he’s also lent his voice to a much more dangerous character. He played the bounty hunter Dengar the Demolisher in both an episode of The Clone Wars and in 2015’s Star Wars: Battlefront game.
We would feel remiss if we didn’t mention an unofficial Star Wars role. During the lead-up to 2011’s Paul — a sci-fi comedy as well as a wonderful love letter to popular science fiction — Simon Pegg and frequent collaborator Nick Frost “recreated” a scene between C-3PO and R2-D2 from A New Hope for College Humor. If you’ve never seen it, do yourself a favor and check it out below.
