It seems a return to the Winchester is not in the cards.
Recently sitting down with The Hollywood Reporter to discuss his role as Hugh Campbell Sr. in Season 4 of The Boys, actor Simon Pegg stated quite plainly that he, Edgar Wright, and Nick Frost have no intention of making a sequel to their classic zombie comedy, Shaun of the Dead (own it now from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment).
“I’m a big fan of sequels. Some of my favorite films are sequels: Empire Strikes Back, Aliens,” he said. “I’m in a couple of film franchises which repeat and reboot, and it’s not that I decry sequels in any way, but I think some stories end. Some stories have a beginning, a middle and an end.”
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He continued: “If you were to see Shaun again, if the zombies came back, there’s just not a story to tell it. We’d have to reset everything that we created in Shaun of the Dead, the journey that Shaun goes on and completes. He becomes a new person, but we’d have to then dismantle that in order to give him a new arc. Why? The best thing we can do with cinema is to challenge people and get them to see things they haven’t seen before and experience new things. Entertainment is the most overrated function of art.”
Pegg did, of course, concede that while Universal Pictures — which owns the “incredibly personal” IP — can reboot the movie any old time it chooses, there would be plenty of pushback from the original makers. “The whole thing with Shaun’s mum, the stepdad, I had a problematic relationship with my stepfather. It was Edgar’s idea to kill the mum,” he revealed. “I couldn’t believe it when he said that, but it was the best decision. There’s so much of our own heart and soul in that film. If someone was to reboot it, it would be a cynical and exploitative exercise. I would hope that people are in love with our Shaun enough to resist a reboot.”
Thankfully, fans can still enjoy two spiritual successors: Hot Fuzz and The World’s End, both of which round out the fan-favorite “Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy.”
Fancy a nice cold pint while you wait for all of this to blow over? Shaun of the Dead is now available to own from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment, alongside Hot Fuzz and The World’s End. Craving more decayed flesh? Shamble on over to Peacock for Night of the Living Dead, Day of the Dead, Dead Snow 2, Abraham Lincoln vs. Zombies, Zombie Hunter, Daylight’s End, Train to Busan, and more!
