Simon Pegg Explains Why a Shaun of the Dead Sequel Would Just Be "Boring"
It's difficult to overstate the effectiveness of Edgar Wright's Shaun of the Dead, not only for being a genuinely thrilling zombie story, but also for being a parody of tropes in the subgenre, though for as much as fans would surely be thrilled to see a follow-up adventure, star and co-writer Simon Pegg admits a sequel would just be "boring." This wasn't so much a reflection on the potential talent involved in such a follow-up, but with Shaun's best friend Ed (Nick Frost) being shown as a zombie in that film's conclusion, it would limit the comedic potential of a sequel.
"It baffles me how there possibly could be a Shaun of the Dead 2, because most of the main characters are dead. One of them is a zombie, in a shed... which would be boring," Pegg joked with Soho House.
Even though we never got a follow-up to the zombie comedy, and seemingly never will, audiences were given multiple more collaborations between Pegg, Wright, and Frost with Hot Fuzz and The World's End. Pegg also pointed out that none of these films should be expected to get sequels, even if he'd somewhat be interested in a World's End sequel.
"I'd love to play Gary King again from The World's End because I really, really loved playing that character," Pegg revealed to /Film earlier this year. "Edgar and I tend not to dwell on the past. We don't do sequels to our movies because we just always want to keep things moving, do different things. And people always ask us about sequels, and we always say no. I think that will always be the case, but in an imaginary kind of scenario where we did do a sequel, I would definitely do a kind of post-apocalyptic World's End sequel with Gary off in the wilderness with his blank friends fighting."
The Shaun of the Dead title alone tipped off to audiences that the project came from passionate horror fans, as it's a play on George A. Romero's iconic 1978 film Dawn of the Dead. Similarly, both Pegg and Wright have joked about a potential sequel that would be titled "From Dusk Till Shaun," a play on the Robert Rodriguez vampire movie From Dusk Till Dawn.
Stay tuned for details on future Pegg and Wright collaborations.
Are you disappointed we'll never get the sequel? Let us know in the comments or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things horror and Star Wars!