Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright’s Next Collaboration May Not Be a Comedy

Just because they’ve completed a trilogy of vaguely ice cream-themed movies doesn’t mean that Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright aren’t planning to work together again some time soon. 

Following the critical and commercial success of Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and The World’s End, the two friends seem to be frequently asked about when they’ll team up to write another movie for Pegg to star in and Wright to direct.

Last year they told NME that they’d very much like to do something soon, but have just been too busy shooting Mission: Impossible sequels and remakes of ‘80s Arnold Schwarzenegger movies to find the time to get together and hammer out a screenplay.

During a recent appearance at Fan Expo Boston, Pegg confirmed that the pair are finally planning to “carve out some time to write something new.” Per Collider, they’re also hoping to write a part for Nick Frost, if they can get him “out of his fucking Hagrid costume” — a reference to the actor’s role in the upcoming Harry Potter HBO series that nobody asked for.

But just because the guys who made the first ever zombie romantic comedy are reteaming doesn’t mean that their new movie will be funny. “One of the great filmmaking duos that Edgar and I have always loved and bonded over is the Coen Brothers,” Pegg explained. “When you look at a film like Raising Arizona, which is one of the funniest film comedies ever made, you’d think their next film would be something along the same lines, and it was Miller’s Crossing. You know?” 

“And I feel like I kind of want to disappoint the fuck out of everybody. I kind of want to make a film that isn’t what’s expected of us,” Pegg added.

Obviously, the Coens’ early work was a huge influence on Wright, specifically Raising Arizona, which the director has noted is one of his favorite films of all-time.

But as Pegg mentioned, Joel and Ethan Coen made the surprising decision to follow up a kinetic comedy in which Nicolas Cage plays a baby-napping ex-con with a period gangster drama.

So will Wright and Pegg really “disappoint the fuck” out of audiences with a left turn into Serious Town for their next movie? 

While Pegg may have just been thinking out loud, it wouldn’t be that surprising if him and Wright made a more dramatic film, considering how weighty their last collaboration was. Sure, The World’s End was full of killer robots, but it was ultimately about a suicidal alcoholic who’s tortured by an oppressive nostalgia for the glory days of youth. 

Or maybe they’ll just make that “cynical and exploitative” Shaun of the Dead reboot.