The idea of Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright making a time travel movie is a very exciting one, and here's hoping it does indeed happen at some point. But it was a notion they genuinely considered when the writing duo started work on The World's End, as the following quotes from our special The World's End spoiler podcastinterviews prove:
"In the very original idea for the story, they’d go back in time," explains Wright. "But that became so unwieldy and also felt like maybe it had already been done in other movies, in Back To The Future-type films, so we ditched that and then we came up with how to end it with the same grace note at the very end."
"We loved the idea that Gary eventually wound up with his original young friends, and the only way we could figure that out first was a time-travel thing," adds Pegg. "But as Edgar said, we doubted the soundness of that plan, so when the idea of The Network arose, we started to hatch out this idea of this intergalactic Starbucks Wetherspooning the universe. It then became apparent we would be able to do it, because we had Gary with the counterparts of his younger selves."
"It’s the same way that with Ed in the shed in Shaun Of The Dead, long before we wrote the film that shot was always going to be the last image. It was a happy ending: Shaun and Ed together."
It's almost as if The World's End was going to be an altogether more British and more '90s take on Hot Tub Time Machine, and when you think about it like that, it's probably just as well they nixed the concept soon after it cropped up. Still: a Pegg 'n' Frost 'n' Wright time travel film still needs to happen at some point. After **Ant-Man **lands in late 2015, perhaps (or perhaps not).
**The World's End **remains in cinemas, both in the UK and the US, and you should watch it again, just so you can pick up the extra Easter Eggs you'll discover in our World's End** spoiler podcast.