20 facts you might not know about 'Shaun of the Dead'

Wright, Simon Pegg, and Jessica Stevenson were the creative team behind the cult British sitcom Spaced. In one episode of that show, Pegg’s character Tim is playing a zombie video game while on amphetamines and begins to hallucinate that he’s in a zombie invasion. This gave Wright and Pegg the germ of the idea for this film.

In addition to Wright directing, Pegg starring, and Wright and Pegg writing the film, other Spaced actors popped up in the movie. Stevenson has a small role as Yvonne, Peter Serafinowicz has roles in both, and Nick Frost plays Ed, Shaun’s best friend.

When Pegg first met Frost, the latter was a waiter. They hit it off and became friends. This led to Pegg helping to get Frost a supporting role on Spaced, even though Frost had basically no acting experience. All he had done prior to that show was a couple of sketches for a British show. Shaun of the Dead is also his first film, unsurprisingly.

If you are from England or love British comedy, you probably recognize a lot of the faces in Shaun of the Dead. It’s a who’s who of British sitcoms and sketch comedy. Perhaps the two most notable names are Lucy Davis and Martin Freeman, who played Dawn and Tim on the British version of The Office.

The producers asked Mirren if she would want to take on the role of Barbara, Shaun’s mother, in the movie. Mirren declined. She said she would rather play funnier characters.

Wright somehow managed to miss the entire foot-and-mouth disease outbreak in the United Kingdom in 2001. He didn’t check in on the news for a couple of weeks — this was before social media was a thing — and was unaware of what was happening. One day, he turned on the news and was baffled by what he saw. This led him to consider the possibility of characters who didn’t know the world was ending. Hence, Shaun and Ed not realizing a zombie invasion had happened.

A lot of comedy movies feature improvisation. Pegg was one of the writers and the film's star, so he could have gotten away with improvising. However, there was basically no improvising in the movie. The film's structure was specific and detailed, and a lot of dialogue was repeated. That didn’t leave room for playing around.

The title "Shaun of the Dead” is a reference to George R. Romero’s Dawn of the Dead, and his films get referenced plenty. There is also a shout-out to another British zombie movie, 28 Days Later. Additionally, on a more esoteric note, the restaurant Fulci’s is a reference to the Italian splatter film director Lucio Fulci.

Memorably, Shaun and Ed ward off zombies by throwing some LPs at them. They list many artists, but they could only get two artists to sign off allowing their actual albums to be shown. One was the British new wave band New Order. The other? The smooth operator herself, Sade.

In another big moment from the movie, Shaun, Liz, and Ed are beating a zombie to the tune of Queen’s “Don’t Stop Me Now.” Much like Wayne’s World and Bohemian Rhapsody, this was a big film for the Queen classic. The song saw a significant increase in popularity in the wake of Shaun of the Dead being released.

Shaun of the Dead is the first film in Wright’s “Three Flavours Cornetto” trilogy. The movies are tied together by the appearance of a different flavor of Cornetto ice cream cone in each given movie. Shaun of the Dead features the strawberry Cornetto, representing the blood prevalent in the film.

Wright made his debut feature film on a budget of only $6.1 million, earning $30 million worldwide. It opened seventh in the United States in a limited release, which is impressive given that it had a bit of competition. Shaun of the Dead came out only two weeks after the remake of Dawn of the Dead.

In 2005, a four-issue miniseries based on Shaun of the Dead was released by IDW Publishing. It was written by IDW’s editor-in-chief Chris Ryall. Before that, Pegg and Wright had written a comic strip for the British comic magazine 2000 AD. The strip, called “There’s Something About Mary,” takes place the day before the zombie outbreak and focuses on Mary, who becomes the first zombie that Ed and Shaun encounter the next day.

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, a lot of people returned to old characters to try and help the cause. Why even Wayne Knight brought Newman back!? Pegg and Frost returned as Shaun and Ed for “The Plan,” a PSA video from March 2020. In it, Shaun advises Ed on how to stay safe during the pandemic.

Shaun of the Dead is a cult hit, but some big names are fans. Quentin Tarantino called it one of his 20 favorite films since 1992, which is a very Tarantino thing to say. Another fan? None other than Romero. Romero even gave Pegg and Frost roles in his movie Land of the Dead.

Shaun of the Dead is a zombie movie. The tagline on the poster even read, “A romantic comedy. With zombies.” However, at one point, Shaun snaps at Ed for calling the undead people “zombies.” This is actually in line with a lot of what we think of as zombie movies. In Night of the Living Dead, Resident Evil, or 28 Days Later, the word “zombie” is never used to describe the monsters.

For a little while, Wright and Pegg would talk about a sequel called “From Dusk till Shaun,” though it was usually tongue-in-cheek. No sequel is going to be made, but the movie still got a bit of life. In Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, you can see a poster for “From Dusk till Shaun” in Times Square.

Shaun’s mom and his stepdad are played by Penelope Wilton and Bill Nighy, respectively. Later, in 2011, those two would again place husband and wife in the movie The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.

Shaun’s mom calls him by the pet name “Pickle.” This was borrowed from reality. It’s what Edgar Wright’s mom used to call him as a kid. Apparently, she also taught at his school, which led to some awkwardness.

Shaun of the Dead is indebted to many films that came before it, but the movie works as a piece of filmmaking in and of itself. You might not be able to say that about some of the movies that more directly knock off Wright and Pegg’s movie. There’s the Spanish-Cuban production Juan of the Dead, the Singapore movie Hsien of the Dead, and Shed of the Dead, which is…British? But also a genre mashup? Ultimately, none of them hold a candle to Shaun of the Dead.