The Cornetto Trilogy stars Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, who play best friends in every movie, but they aren’t the only actors who appear in all three movies. After his debut movie A Fistful of Fingers in 1995, director and writer Edgar Wright brought Shaun of the Dead in 2004. Shaun of the Dead is a zombie comedy set during the zombie apocalypse and follows best friends Shaun (Pegg) and Ed (Frost) as they lead their friends and loved ones to safety. Shaun of the Dead was the beginning of a trilogy, known as the Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy or, simply, the Cornetto Trilogy, as every movie features one specific flavor of Cornetto.
Shaun of the Dead was followed by Hot Fuzz, an action comedy, and the trilogy closed with the apocalyptic sci-fi comedy The World’s End. The Cornetto Trilogy has been widely praised by critics and viewers for its sense of humor, visual comedy, the performances of its cast, and the themes it covers, with maturity being the main one across all movies. There are many jokes and tropes that happen in all Cornetto Trilogy movies, among them shared actors, with some playing minor characters in all movies in the trilogy, while others played main or secondary characters in at least one of the movies. Here are all Cornetto Trilogy actors who appear in every movie.
8 Simon Pegg
Simon Pegg is one of the two stars of the Cornetto Trilogy. In Shaun of the Dead, he played Shaun, a 29-year-old electronics salesman with no direction in his life. Right before the zombie apocalypse, Shaun was dumped by his girlfriend, Liz, and when the apocalypse began, he and his best friend Ed came up with a plan to take Liz and her two friends, Shaun’s mom Barbara, and his stepfather Philip to their favorite pub, the Winchester, where they believed they would be safe. In Hot Fuzz, Pegg played Nicholas Angel, a high-achieving Metropolitan Police officer who was reassigned to the small rural town of Sandford, Gloucestershire, where he ended up investigating a series of mysterious deaths with the help of Danny Butterman.
Pegg’s final performance in the Cornetto Trilogy was as Gary King in The World’s End. Gary was an immature 40-year-old alcoholic with depression who decided to recapture his youth by convincing his old friends to complete the “Golden Mile”, a pub crawl they tried and failed to complete when they were teenagers. Although all of Pegg’s performances in the Cornetto Trilogy were great, Gary King has been praised for his vulnerability.
7 Nick Frost
Nick Frost is the other star of the Cornetto Trilogy, playing the best friend of Pegg’s characters. In Shaun of the Dead, Frost played Ed, Shaun’s slacker best friend who helped Shaun lead the rest of the group to the Winchester. In Hot Fuzz, Frost played Danny Butterman, the son of Inspector Frank Butterman, who was assigned as Nicholas’ partner, and though he’s childish, he taught Nicholas to loosen up and enjoy life. Last but not least, Frost played Andy Knightley in The World’s End, Gary’s childhood friend. Gary and Andy went their separate ways when they grew up, and Andy was initially hesitant to join his plan for different personal reasons. Andy was Frost’s most mature character in the Cornetto Trilogy, but he learned a lot from Gary King.
6 Bill Nighy
Joining Simon Pegg and Nick Frost in every movie of the Cornetto Trilogy is Bill Nighy. In Shaun of the Dead, Nighy played Philip, Shaun’s stepfather who didn’t get along with Shaun, but the two reconciled during the zombie apocalypse. In Hot Fuzz, Nighy played the Chief Inspector from the Met and thus the one who reassigned Nicholas, and in The World’s End, Nighy was the voice of The Network, a disembodied alien entity that showed up in the third act of the movie.
5 Martin Freeman
Martin Freeman’s roles gradually increased in every movie of the Cornetto Trilogy. First, in Shaun of the Dead, Freeman played Declan, Yvonne’s boyfriend, in the scene where Shaun and company come across Yvonne and her group, which are a mirror to everyone on Shaun’s side, with Declan being the equivalent of Liz. In Hot Fuzz, Freeman played a Sergeant from the Metropolitan Police in London, who stood next to Nighy’s character as he sent Nicholas away. Later, in The World’s End, Freeman played Oliver Chamberlain, one of Gary and Andy’s friends who became an estate agent, and who had a very peculiar fate at the end of the movie.
4 Rafe Spall
Rafe Spall played a minor character in Shaun of the Dead: Noel, an employee of Foree Electric and thus Shaun’s coworker, who constantly made fun of Shaun for being the oldest employee, but he had a not-so-nice fate at the end of the movie. In Hot Fuzz, Spall was one-half of one of the movie’s comedic duos: the Andys, as he played DC Andy Cartwright and Paddy Considine played DS Andy Wainwright. In The World’s End, Rafe Spall had a minor cameo appearance simply credited as “Young Man”.
3 Julie Deakin
Julie Deakin briefly appears in Shaun of The Dead as Yvonne’s mother, in the same scene as Martin Freeman. In Hot Fuzz, Deakin played Mary Porter, who along with her husband ran the local pub The Crown. Mary was a member of the Neighborhood Watch Alliance, and she and her husband were involved in a shootout at The Crown when Nicholas Angel returned to put an end to the Neighborhood Watch Alliance. In The World’s End, Deakin played a character credited as “B&B Landlady”.
2 Patricia Franklin
Patricia Franklin had a minor role in Shaun of the Dead as Spinster, a woman with glasses who could be found at the Winchester every night, and who Ed used to cheer up Shaun by making up several facts about her. Franklin returned in Hot Fuzz now as Annette Roper, a resident of Sandford who was part of the Neighborhood Watch Alliance. Annette was later seen with a scoped rifle, ready to shoot Nicholas. Franklin had a minor role in The World’s End that’s credited as “Upstairs Beehive Lady”, as the group comes across her at The Beehive pub.
1 Garth Jennings
Garth Jennings can also be found in every movie of the Cornetto Trilogy, but it’s a tricky one as he had minor roles in each movie. First, Jennings played a zombie credited as “‘Fun Dead’ Zombie” in Shaun of the Dead, and in Hot Fuzz, he played a crack addict. In The World’s End, Jenning’s character is simply credited as “Man in Pub No. 5”.
