Shaun of the Dead could have starred Dame Helen Mirren as Barbara and Kate Winslet as Liz.
Talking to EW about the making of the classic rom-zom-com, director and co-writer Edgar Wright, along with stars Simon Pegg (who also co-wrote the movie) and Nick Frost, revealed a different cast was considered.
"Some people just didn't get [the script]. I'm not embarrassing her by saying this, because she says the same thing – Penelope Wilton initially passed. Helen Mirren was offered Barbara. She said, 'I would only do the movie if I got to play Ed'," Wright recalled.
Even Frost admitted that Mirren as his character Ed would have been "amazing", but the Queen star wasn't the only one who passed on the movie.
"Kate Winslet was briefly interested in playing Liz," Wright continued, with Pegg expanding: "We had tea with Kate Winslet. She was like, 'Yeah, okay – but no.'"
The role of Shaun's long-suffering girlfriend eventually went to Kate Ashfield, and the rest is history. We can't actually imagine the movie being better with anyone else, although Mirren as Ed would have been quite something.
But will we ever get to hang out with Shaun, zombie Ed and co again?
"I jokingly wrote a treatment for From Dusk Till Shaun, which was a sequel," Pegg explained. "Edgar thought it would be funny to do the film again, with vampires. It was all just pub talk."
Still, Frost is at least hopeful that the three will make another movie together with their last, The World's End, released in 2013: "When it happens it'll happen, and it'll be great. Or people will hate it."
Pegg and Frost are currently busy with their own film and TV production studio, with their first movie, fittingly, being a horror comedy.
