Simon Pegg has shared his two cents on why the Cornetto Trilogy may never obtain the sequel treatment, suggesting that succeeding follow-ups to the films in the trilogy – Shaun of the Dead (2004), Hot Fuzz (2007), and The World’s End (2013), could “retroactively damage” them.
Speaking at Rose City Comic Con 2024 (from a story by Popverse), Pegg weighed in on where he stood with sequels, citing the controversial Alien 3, directed by David Fincher (Seven, Gone Girl). “I’m a big fan of sequels,” Pegg said. “I participate in a lot of films that are sequel-ized.”
“There are certain films that lend themselves to that, because they are about ongoing adventures, you know, like Mission: Impossible — it’s like, it’s missions, there’s one after another.”
“But a film like Shaun or Hot Fuzz, which has a particular kind of character arc where there is a beginning, middle, and end to the story, if you sequel-ize that, you’re gonna have to dismantle the resolution of the previous film, and in some ways, you retroactively damage these films.”
As mentioned before, Pegg cited Alien 3 as a “bugbear” and an influential example in his skepticism towards sequel-making, suggesting the threequel “ruined every subsequent viewing of Aliens.”
“You’re watching Ripley go to all that effort to save Newt, and she’s going to die in the next film, you know?” the 54-year-old actor explained. Moving onto the topic of Shaun of the Dead, Pegg, who played the hapless hero and titular character, believes Shaun’s “journey” reached a natural conclusion, remarking that it had “to be the end of that story.”
“If we opened it up again, it could ruin Shaun of the Dead. Same with Hot Fuzz, same with The World’s End.” Each film in the trilogy is, in some way, “the sequel to the other films.”
“Not everything needs a sequel,” Pegg declared. “Sometimes we crave familiarity, or we just want to spend some time with those characters again. I think, if you miss them, just go watch the movie again.”
