Shaun of the Dead type Movie

Why has there never been a sequel to the beloved and financially successful 2004 zombie-comedy Shaun of the Dead? Well, the film’s star Simon Pegg, who co-wrote the script with director Edgar Wright, says the pair did briefly contemplate the idea of a follow-up movie, but that their discussions never amounted to more than “pub talk,” a highly appropriate phrase given that much of the film is set in a London bar.

“I jokingly wrote a treatment for From Dusk Till Shaun, which was a sequel to Shaun of the Dead,” Pegg told EW in the course of reminiscing about the film for our recent oral history of the movie. “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. But it was all just pub talk.”

Wright himself recalled that he did indeed consider the notion of making the same film again but without zombies.

“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,” said the director. “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.”

Of course, Wright, Pegg, and Pegg’s costar Nick Frost would reunite for two more films, 2007’s Hot Fuzz and 2013’s The World’s End, the latter of which completed the so-called Three Flavors Cornetto Trilogy. And Wright confirms he would be more than happy to work with Pegg and Frost again.

“I actually was texting with Simon today, in fact,” said Wright, who wrote and directed this year’s hit getaway driver thriller, Baby Driver. “If we did something else, I think it would be something new, that’s not part of the existing kind of trilogy. It’s really about writing something that we want to do, rather than it seeming like we ought to do something, do you know what I mean? The three movies we made all come from different points of passion. It’s finding what that is and again chaining ourselves to the office to write it. [Laughs] But I would like to work with them again, of course. They’re best friends as well as collaborators.”

Shaun of the Dead is screening Oct. 26 at Los Angeles’ Greek Theatre. Watch the film’s trailer, above.