A Controversial Seth Rogen Movie Has Returned To Netflix

Not many movies come close to starting a full-blown international incident, never mind a studio comedy starring Seth Rogen and James Franco, but at least it’s given the otherwise forgettable The Interview a place in the history books.

Rogen and longtime creative collaborator Evan Goldberg’s second directorial effort even managed to find itself ahead of the curve by years after Sony released the film digitally when a huge number of major theater chains refused to screen it thanks to the controversy that risked the wrath of North Korea, and at one point looked like it could set international relations back decades.

The Interview had already been hit with several delays after the North Korean government threatened action were the project ever to see the light of day, leading to some substantial re-edits to try and make the finished product more palatable to the nation. Of course, that was pretty much impossible when the entire plot revolved around Franco’s Dave Skylark palling around with Randall Park’s Kim Jong-un, but at least they tried.

In the end, it was a storm in a teacup more than anything else, with The Interview ultimately yielding no sort of notable outward aggression from North Korea. It was certainly a curious moment in cinematic history, though, and as strange as it sounds to say it out loud almost seven years after the movie’s release, for a while it looked like Seth Rogen would be directly responsible for World War III.