Simon Pegg Apologized to George Romero for Contradicting ‘Dawn of the Dead’ With This ‘Shaun of the Dead’ Scene

It should go without saying that Shaun of the Dead wouldn’t exist without the work of George A. Romero. The late filmmaker pioneered the zombie movie genre with classics such as Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead and the Japanese commercial for Resident Evil 2 that was better than every single Resident Evil movie.

So naturally, when Shaun of the Dead star and co-writer Simon Pegg visited the “Criterion Closet” — i.e., the room beloved by movie obsessives who aren’t claustrophobes — he highlighted Romero’s classic Night of the Living Dead.

“George Romero basically invented the modern zombie movie, and I don’t think he gets enough credit for it,” Pegg argued. “Because a lot of people have taken his idea — myself included, and Edgar Wright, although (Shaun of the Dead) was very much a tribute to George — and sort of run with it, as if it’s like the public domain, like Frankenstein’s monster or the Mummy or whatever.” 

Of course, technically Night of the Living Dead is in the public domain, because some dummy forgot to include the copyright information in the film’s credits after a last-minute title change. But I understand what Pegg means.

Shaun of the Dead is clearly a loving homage to Romero’s films, hence why scenes contain excerpts from Goblin’s iconic Dawn of the Dead score, and at one point, Nick Frost’s character Ed quotes the doomed Johnny from Night of the Living Dead’s opening scene.

But when Pegg and Wright screened their film for Romero, Pegg couldn’t help but apologize to the director. “I remember we showed George Shaun of the Dead,” Pegg explained. “He said, ‘I really enjoyed the movie.’ And I said, ‘I’m sorry because Philip, Bill Nighy’s character, he reanimates quite quickly in Shaun of the Dead, and I know in Dawn of the Dead, Roger takes quite a while before he comes back.’”

It’s true, Philip comes back from the dead mere seconds after passing away.

Whereas Roger’s zombification is a prolonged process, which makes it all the more unnerving when his corpse begins to slowly rise from underneath his blanket.

Thankfully, Romero was totally fine with the change. “I had this verbal diarrhea, like I was apologizing for messing with his mythology,” Pegg recalled. “And he went, ‘Simon, I didn’t mind.’ I was like, ‘Phew.’”

In fact, Romero was so pleased about Shaun of the Dead that he invited Pegg and Wright to play zombies in his 2005 film Land of the Dead.

Of course, he may not have been so chill about the whole thing had they made the zombies run.