In 2004, Shaun of the Dead surprised critics and audiences alike with its low-budget, hilarious take on the then-recently reanimated zombie genre. While the film kicked off what was later dubbed the Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy, which includes Hot Fuzz and The World’s End, fans hoped Shaun would see the light of day again with a sequel. Rumors came and went over the years, but as Pegg recently confirmed, no one involved ever gave a sequel much thought.
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“I jokingly wrote a treatment for From Dusk Till Shaun, which was a sequel to Shaun of the Dead,” said Pegg told Entertainment Weekly. “It was all about Shaun and Ed having to go up to Edinburgh, or something. I don’t know. It was ridiculous. And it was a joke. It wasn’t like a serious pitch. Edgar thought it would be funny to do the film again, but with vampires.”
Pegg dismissed the brainstorming as mere “pub talk,” while director Edgar Wright elaborated on another idea he’d jokingly pitched.
“There was a brief idea we had, that we entertained for all of like 72 hours, where I thought you could do an alternate reality sequel,” he said. “It basically starts with the same movie but then it becomes not about zombies. But these films, they take three years. So, it’s like, if you’re doing another movie, let’s do something completely different.”
So, despite Shaun‘s huge success and help in launching Wright, Pegg, and cowriter/star Nick Frost’s Hollywood career, none of them ever showed much interest in rehashing old stories. That isn’t to say that any of them are opposed to joining forces again in the future.
“I actually was texting with Simon today, in fact,” said Wright. “If we did something else, I think it would be something new, that’s not part of the existing kind of trilogy…But I would like to work with them again, of course. They’re best friends as well as collaborators.”