Shaun of the Dead will celebrate its 20th anniversary next year. Over the years the movie has become the model (alongside Evil Dead 2) for pulling off the tricky feat of combining horror and comedy, with creators Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright jokingly dubbing the undead caper a “rom-zom-com.”
Everyone involved in the movie has since gone on to bigger things: the trio of Pegg, Wright and co-star Nick Frost followed up Shaun with Hot Fuzz and The World’s End, with the three films now known as the ‘Cornetto trilogy.’ While the trio have since moved on to greener pastures, fans are still crying out for another movie that recaptures that Shaun of the Dead magic.
Over on Reddit a post titled “We need more from Simon Pegg and Nick Frost” has many supporters. Some of those looking back at the movie now feel vindicated, saying:
“I was among those online at the time hailing Shaun of The Dead as a modern horror comedy classic. I’m kind of happy that 20 years on that turns out to have held true.”
Others underline Pegg and Frost work best under the direction of Edgar Wright, who they’ve worked with ever since classic British sitcom Spaced. They point out that the little-seen 2018 movie Slaughterhouse Rulez also featured the pair in supporting roles, but was made without Wright’s involvement, failed to impress critics and only made £738,000 against a £5.2 million budget. In 2020 Pegg and Frost also reunited for Prime Video show Truth Seekers, which was unjustly canceled after just one season.
Fortunately, the door for this dream team to return is still open. In 2022 Pegg was promoting his Disney Plus movie The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild and was asked whether he’d consider getting the gang back together:
“With Edgar and I, we have to just get our schedules in order so that we can write together again. We’re talking about stuff, there’s been ideas thrown around and we’re circling something. But obviously he’s really busy, I’m really busy. It’s not like the old days when we were just trying to get seen and we had all that time. Now things are a little more complicated. But there’s room in my heart for all that stuff and I obviously want to work Edgar and Nick again because they’re my mates and it means we get to hang out more.”
Here’s hoping they find the time. Shaun of the Dead remains one of the most unique zombie movies out there, able to seamlessly switch gears between slapstick comedy, horror and some surprisingly genuine pathos. We want more, so fingers crossed that one day it arrives.
