Simon Pegg, the British actor who entered the film industry spotlight after starring in Edgar Wright's 2004 horror comedy, Shaun of the Dead, has a bone to pick with another zombie film released in the same year. Pegg has gone on the record to say that he feels Zack Snyder's remake of the Romero classic, Dawn of the Dead, is "disrespectful to the original."

Pegg's big break into big studio films was in 2004 when, alongside Nick Frost, his good friend and partner from his days on TV's Spaced, he starred in the first film of the "Cornetto" trilogy. He would go on to collaborate with director Wright and Frost again for Hot Fuzz and The World's End. The actor would then continue his Hollywood career by joining franchises like Mission: Impossible and Star Trek. In 2019, he appeared in Prime Video's adaptation of the comic book series The Boys, in which he plays Hugh Sr., Hughie's Billy Joel-loving dad.

While promoting The Boys Season 4 in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Pegg notes that if Universal wanted to remake Shaun of the Dead, he and Wright "would be incensed." The actor then compares this possibility of a remake with Zack Snyder's highly praised directorial debut, and how the movie really annoys him in one specific way:

"I always got annoyed at Zack Snyder's Dawn of the Dead remake — it's a great movie. It's really exciting. But I hated the fact they called it Dawn of the Dead , because that was George's film. They could have called it Deadish , which was a great line in the film that one of the actors used, and it still would have been a great film."

When you just take a title because people recognize it, it's so disrespectful to the original.

Snyder's Dawn of the Dead doesn't share much with Romero's original 1978 film, apart from the title. Sure, the film mostly takes place in a shopping mall, but the characters heavily differ from the original. The script, written by James Gunn, is based on the dynamics of the survivors who decide to seek shelter in a mall, but the film constantly shifts towards action and comedy and ends up getting rid of the bleaker tone of Romero's original.

Zack Snyder Returned to Zombies with Army of the Dead

Over the last two decades, Snyder has moved into other genres. The most important part of his career started in 2013, when he made a modern version of Superman, Man of Steel. Snyder's version of Justice League would eventually follow after several years, providing both a great experience for some fans, and a reason to slam Snyder for others. However, Snyder always proved he wasn't only cut out for superhero films, and the zombie subgenre in horror remains one of his best displays.

Since Dawn of the Dead, Snyder did not make another horror film until returning to the world of zombies with Netflix's production of Army of the Dead. Conceived by Snyder in 2007, the film would spend almost a decade in development hell because the director's vision required the kind of budget that is not easy to come by. When Snyder signed a deal with Netflix, Army of the Dead became one of the exclusive projects that became a priortiy. The result was a zombie heist epic of 148 minutes, and the reception was good enough for Netflix to think of a franchise.

The spin-off prequel comedy Army of Thieves was based on Snyder's story, but people mostly forgot about it despite its good reception by critics. Planet of the Dead is set to be the next project in the franchise, but details on the sequel have been mostly on hold while Snyder worked on his other big franchise with the streamer, Rebel Moon. With his "Snyder Cuts" of his two sci-fi movies due for release soon, and an animated series, Twilight of the Gods, also coming soon, perhaps his latest zombie movie could be next on the cards.