Simon Pegg doesn’t want a Shaun of the Dead reboot, and he enjoys the Dawn of the Dead remake while finding it disrespectful
A lot of fans have been clamoring for a sequel to the 2004 zombie romantic comedy Shaun of the Dead (watch or own it HERE) from the moment they first saw the end credits on that film to start to roll, but co-writer/star Simon Pegg has always been clear about the fact that he and director/co-writer Edgar Wright have no interest in revisiting the Shaun character… and during an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Pegg added that he would be incensed if Universal decided to make a Shaun of the Dead reboot, going on to explain why he finds Zack Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead remake to be disrespectful to George A. Romero’s original film.
Shaun of the Dead has the following synopsis: Shaun is a 30-something loser with a dull, easy existence. When he’s not working at the electronics store, he lives with his slovenly best friend, Ed, in a small flat on the outskirts of London. The only unpredictable element in his life is his girlfriend, Liz, who wishes desperately for Shaun to grow up and be a man. When the town is inexplicably overrun with zombies, Shaun must rise to the occasion and protect both Liz and his mother.
Pegg plays Shaun, and was joined in the cast by Nick Frost, Kate Ashfield, and Penelope Wilton.
When The Hollywood Reporter asked him if there’s any chance of a Shaun of the Dead sequel ever happening, Pegg said, “I mean, Universal [Pictures] owns it. If they choose to reboot it, then they can if they want I guess. Although Edgar and I would be incensed. (Laughs.) … Shaun of the Dead is incredibly personal. There’s so much of us in that film. The whole joke of Ed and Shaun not being able to ever come out of The Winchester was real. That was about Nick and I, that was about our decision to just stay in a North London pub. Edgar was always in town. He was always in Soho, and he always wanted us to come into town and hang out at [London private members’ club] The Groucho, and we never did. We always wanted to be in The Shepherds [pub]. My girlfriend, now my wife, was the same. She was like, “Are we going to The Shepherds again?” That inspired that whole storyline. 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. 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. Gary King [Pegg’s character in The World’s End] as well, that was a lot about my own alcoholism. A really personal film. And the thought of anyone just nicking the title … I always got annoyed at Zack Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead remake — it’s a great movie. It’s really exciting. But I hated the fact they called it Dawn of the Dead, because that was George [Romero]’s film. They could have called it Deadish, which was a great line in the film that one of the actors used, and it still would have been a great film, but when you just take a title because people recognize it, it’s so disrespectful to the original.“
As for why there’s no interest in making a sequel, “I’m a big fan of sequels. Some of my favorite films are sequels: Empire Strikes Back, Aliens. 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. 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.“
So there’s no sequel coming our way and hopefully there won’t be a Shaun of the Dead reboot, but Pegg and Wright do plan to work together again. Pegg said, “There’s something always in the works with Edgar and I. Since Shaun of the Dead, our lives have changed dramatically. We’re both busy into the distant future. The biggest challenge that we have right now is finding a moment to get together and spend six, seven weeks, to get our first draft out and come up with the idea. But we’re constantly looking for that. Edgar came over to my house last year and stayed for the week, and we just sort of talked about films and what we want to do next. We just need the time to do it. So it really is a question of when, not if.“
What do you think of what Simon Pegg had to say about a Shaun of the Dead reboot, the lack of a sequel, and the Dawn of the Dead remake? Let us know by leaving a comment below.