Simon Pegg Shoots Down Shaun of the Dead Reboot

Don’t look forward to a new Shaun of the Dead film any time soon. Simon Pegg says he doesn’t want to see the classic zombie film rebooted.

The actor, who starred in the 2004 horror-comedy, reflected on his past movies in a recent interview. “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,” Pegg tells THR.

While Shaun of the Dead features broad laughs, it’s also a deeply personal film to Pegg, as well as to director Edgar Wright. Pegg plays a salesman in London thrust into the middle of a wild and often slapstick zombie apocalypse, but there are references to their own lives.

“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…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…”

So that’s the reboot off the table, but what about a sequel starring Pegg? Unfortunately, he’s not interested in returning to the role. “I don’t think so,” he continues. “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.”

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