Of all the great action movies in 2025, one was the most poignant. In the final entry in the Mission: Impossible franchise, The Final Reckoning, Tom Cruise faced one more mission as Ethan Hunt before riding off into the sunset, leaving behind his most iconic character and a franchise that will forever define action cinema. Although Cruise can take a lot of the credit for the film’s near-$600 million box office haul and many positive reviews, he isn’t the only star of the show, with one of the unsung heroes of recent Mission: Impossible being a British comic icon.
Star of the beloved Cornetto Trilogy (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and The World’s End), Simon Pegg might be best known for making the world laugh, but in recent years, he’s proven his acting range in a variety of performances. One of the most underrated has been part of a stellar cast in the Channel 4 series The Undeclared War, which first aired in 2022. Running for six episodes, each directed by The State‘s Peter Kosminsky, the series received plenty of positive reviews and was even compared to the likes of 24 and Homeland.
These positive reviews earned The Undeclared War a second season renewal, although it would take four years to come. Thankfully, the moment is finally upon us, with the series scheduled to return on August 27, 2026. Ahead of its arrival, a pulse-racing trailer has dropped, which is available to view in full below. The trailer sets the tone for Season 2 immediately, as Pegg‘s Danny Patrick states that they’re faced with a “potentially nuclear piece of malware,” with Foreign Secretary Richard Marston, portrayed by Ed Stoppard, adding that it “constitutes the cyber equivalent of an armed attack on the United Kingdom.”
Who Stars in ‘An Undeclared War’?
The line-up for An Undeclared War is packed with talent, led by award-winner Pegg. This includes Siân Brooke (Blue Lights), Hannah Khalique-Brown (Red Rose), Alex Jennings (A Very English Scandal), Danny Sapani (Penny Dreadful), the aforementioned Stoppard (Knightfall), and Chloe Pirrie (The Queen’s Gambit), who joins the series as Lt Colonel Roz Cavendish. A synopsis for Season 2 reads:
“Set in 2024, The Undeclared War returns with a fresh wave of tension and drama as the elite Malware Department at GCHQ grapples with the aftermath of a devastating Russian cyber-attack. Just when it seems the UK has gained the upper hand, Danny and the team uncover a far more dangerous threat.”
via Collider