Hope they stock up on the Milky Ways. Jay Baruchel is game for a sequel to 2013’s This Is the End — but it might be tough to wrangle up the star-studded cast.
“It’s a good movie. It’s a very good movie. Always, of course, always,” the Canada native, 38, exclusively told Us Weekly of reprising his role. “But getting all of us together is like f—king herding cats. Yeah. I’m real proud of that flick and so yeah, I could. They could probably talk me into doing another one if it came to be.”
Baruchel starred in the raunchy comedy alongside Seth Rogen, James Franco, Jonah Hill, Danny McBride and Craig Robinson. The actors, who all played heightened versions of themselves, initially reunite at an L.A. party before trying to survive an apocalypse. Many die (sorry, Aziz Ansari!), Rihanna shows up and Channing Tatum makes an unexpected cameo.
Rogen, 38, wrote and directed This Is the End with Evan Goldberg. Baruchel has also previously worked with his longtime pal Rogen on Undeclared and Knocked Up.
“When we were like 19-20, [we were] just sitting there in his house in clouds of weed smoke talking about, ‘Ah, man, this is what I want to do and this is what I want to be,’” Baruchel recalled to Us. “What’s really cool is that it kind of ended up playing out exactly how we both said it would. I was like, ‘I just want to make weirdo movies up in Canada with a bunch of blood and guts.’ And he was like, ‘I want to make big American comedies.’ And yeah, that’s what happened. It’s pretty cool. It’s nice when a bulls—t, stoner conversation somehow manifests itself in reality.”
The How to Train Your Dragon actor has gone on to direct Goon: Last of the Enforcers and Random Acts of Violence. Rogen, for his part, has had blockbuster success with films such as Superbad, Zack and Miri Make a Porno, Neighbors, Pineapple Express and Long Shot.
Baruchel and Rogen don’t just have writing in common, however. The two — understandably — are big Backstreet Boys fans. And that’s exactly why they asked the boy band to make a surprise appearance in This Is the End’s final scene.
Baruchel joked: “[They’re the] first thing I think about every day, last thing I think about when I go to bed.”
