--- title: Simon Pegg: Star Trek Beyond Interview LISTEN description: Simon Pegg chatted with CBC Radio guest host Rachel Giese Friday about how Star Trek Beyond's plot relates to today's political climate. canonical: https://time.com/4408593/simon-pegg-star-trek-beyond-politics/ author: Megan McCluskey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-07-15T20:53:42.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:34:27.989Z og:title: Simon Pegg on How Star Trek Beyond Mirrors Modern Politics og:description: "We should be knocking walls down" og:url: https://time.com/4408593/simon-pegg-star-trek-beyond-politics/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt22c0f93038ba8423/69889c21e20a87ce23a919cc/simon-pegg.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 594 og:image:height: 334 og:image:alt: Simon Pegg og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Simon Pegg on How Star Trek Beyond Mirrors Modern Politics twitter:description: "We should be knocking walls down" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt22c0f93038ba8423/69889c21e20a87ce23a919cc/simon-pegg.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Simon Pegg Confirms: _Star Trek Beyond_ Is Just Like Current Political Events > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=6673539b-8944-48ca-ab63-dbb72ec4f013&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1)  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Jul 15, 2016 8:53 PM UTC  Simon Pegg attends the UK premiere of 'Star Trek Beyond' on July 12, 2016 in London, United Kingdom. Simon Pegg attends the UK premiere of 'Star Trek Beyond' on July 12, 2016 in London, United Kingdom. Anthony Harvey/Getty Images  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Jul 15, 2016 8:53 PM UTC [_Star Trek Beyond_](http://time.com/4399356/zachary-quinto-george-takei-disappointed/?utm%5Fsource=dlvr.it&utm%5Fmedium=twitter&utm%5Fcampaign=Feed%3A+time%2Fentertainment+%28TIME%3A+Entertainment%29) hasn’t been released yet, but it has already generated buzz for featuring the franchise’s first gay character — [John Cho’s Hikaru Sulu](http://time.com/4396436/star-trek-lgbt-john-cho/) (originally played by [George Takei](http://www.ew.com/article/2016/07/07/george-takei-gay-sulu-unfortunate-star-trek-beyond)). Now, writer [Simon Pegg](http://time.com/4398071/george-takei-simon-pegg-sulu-gay-star-trek-beyond/) has weighed in on how the film speaks to other real-world issues. The 46-year-old actor — who reprises his role as Enterprise engineer Scotty in _Beyond_ — [chatted with CBC Radio](http://www.cbc.ca/radio/popup/audio/listen.html?autoPlay=true&clipIds=&mediaIds=2691735346&contentarea=radio&subsection1=radio1&subsection2=entertainment&subsection3=Q&contenttype=audio&title=2016/07/15/1.3680401-simon-pegg-says-star-trek-has-always-been-ahead-of-its-time&contentid=1.3680401) guest host Rachel Giese Friday about how the sci-fi flick’s plot relates to today’s political climate. “\[It\] was always very important that \[_Beyond_\] not just be an adventure in space, it had to have some kind of allegorical weight and relevance to now, which I think it does — even more than we intended — with the current thing with Brexit and the U.K,” he said. Pegg went on to talk about the message the film sends. “This sort of anti-collectivism which exists right now; that’s the thrust of our villain,” he said. “We’re living in an era when people want to build walls between countries when we should be knocking walls down.” _Star Trek Beyond_ hits theaters on July 22. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4408593/simon-pegg-star-trek-beyond-politics/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4408593/simon-pegg-star-trek-beyond-politics/"},"headline":"Simon Pegg Confirms: Star Trek Beyond Is Just Like Current Political Events","datePublished":"2016-07-15T20:53:42.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:34:27.989Z","description":"\"We should be knocking walls down\"","url":"https://time.com/4408593/simon-pegg-star-trek-beyond-politics/","keywords":["Newsfeed","movies","Star Trek"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt22c0f93038ba8423/69889c21e20a87ce23a919cc/simon-pegg.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Megan McCluskey","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt22c0f93038ba8423/69889c21e20a87ce23a919cc/simon-pegg.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Simon Pegg","caption":"Simon Pegg attends the UK premiere of 'Star Trek Beyond' on July 12, 2016 in London, United Kingdom.","creditText":"Anthony Harvey/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4408593/simon-pegg-star-trek-beyond-politics/","name":"Simon Pegg Confirms: Star Trek Beyond Is Just Like Current Political Events"}}]}] ```