Bad news for people who like to mix their zombies with romantic comedies: There are currently no plans for a Shaun of the Dead sequel. In a recent interview, Star Simon Pegg fervently discounted a follow-up to the surprise hit of 2004.
Speaking with The Guardian while promoting the upcoming Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 1, Pegg said that although he and writer/director Edgar Wright are definitely planning a fourth team-up following Shaun, Hot Fuzz (2007), and The World’s End (2013), it certainly won’t be Shaun of the Dead 2.
Pegg stated:
“If I ever do an Instagram Live or whatever, people are always like, ‘I need Shaun of the Dead 2 in my life.’ And I’m like, ‘No, you don’t f*****g need Shaun of the Dead 2! The last thing you need is Shaun of the Dead 2! It’s done. Move on!’”
Okay, first of all: Chill, Mr. Pegg. We just like your work. But we’re also on board with Shaun of the Dead being a one-and-done since Hot Fuzz, also starring Pegg and actor Nick Frost, sort of served as an unofficial sequel anyway.
Sure, the story of Shaun doesn’t continue in Hot Fuzz. But the shoot-’em-up parody boasts many of the same cast members and similar crash-zoom montages, and it likewise finds ways to brutally murder people who were just making us laugh a moment before. The same goes for The World’s End, an underrated conclusion to the unofficial “Three Flavours Cornetto” trilogy, dubbed after ice cream snacks that we really wish were more common in the U.S.
However, Pegg did mention that he and Wright got together last summer to talk about working on a fourth film together:
“Whatever Edgar and I do next, we’re not going to rely on what we’ve done before. I like the idea of pissing people off. There’s something fun about torching everything. Everything that people think we are, that’s what we won’t be. We should just do something that no one’s expecting. But no one wants!”
Hey, if that kind of thinking gave us classic bits like “You’ve got red on you,” then we’re willing to give Nothing We Expect nor Want the chance it apparently deserves.
