Over the years, Superbad has become one of those movies people love to revisit and reexamine. Some fans still consider it not just one of the greatest movies of the 2000s, but one of the best comedies ever. Although some have argued that certain jokes and attitudes have aged less gracefully. So when Seth Rogen recently said the movie would never get made today, I immediately assumed he was referring to the content. Turns out, that wasn’t the issue at all.
During an appearance on The Interview, the podcast from The New York Times, Rogen reflected on how dramatically Hollywood has changed since he and Evan Goldberg brought Superbad to theaters in 2007. According to the actor, producer and co-writer, the biggest difference lies in how studios approach risk when planning their 2026 movie release calendar and beyond. As he explained:
Yeah, 100 percent, yes, and we’ve just seen it. Superbad is a good example. When we made that movie, they bought our script, they hired a director, they said it would have a $20 million budget and it would start shooting in August or April of that year and would come out in August of the following year. That’s it. And then we cast the movie, we found a director for the movie, we made it according to their schedule and we released it on the date they chose. That would never happen today in a hundred million years. No studio would just buy a script, give it a release date, cast it and then make it.
That’s a fascinating answer because the movie itself has frequently been part of conversations about how comedy evolves, along with Mel Brooks’s classic Blazing Saddles. Some of the elements that feel like products of their era, but it’s hard not to acknowledge why the movie remains beloved nearly two decades later.
According to the Pineapple Express star, modern studios want nearly every piece of the puzzle locked down before committing to production. He continued:
Now everything has to be in place before they’ll decide whether or not they’re making it: Who’s the director? Who are the actors? Are they famous enough? Do they have big enough names? If not, then we’ve got to get different ones, or else we won’t make it. And I know we want it to start shooting in April and release it next summer but, if we don’t have the right actors, we’re not going to do that, because we think these actors will get us more money than these actors, even though they might not be the funniest actors for the role, they might be more commercial for the role.
Rogen argued that the process isn’t necessarily impossible, but it has become far more complicated because of what he views as increasing risk aversion. A couple of beats later, he credited former Sony executive Amy Pascal for trusting the creative team instead of chasing the safest possible option. He added:
Not to say you won’t ultimately get to the funniest people for the role, but you’ll have to go through an incredible process to do it in a way that is all due to risk aversion. [Former Sony head] Amy Pascal was willing to just say: ‘Make this movie. You’ll put the funniest people in it. That will make the best version of the movie, and the best version of this movie is what will make us the most money.’ That is not said anymore really in Hollywood.
That is an interesting contrast with how Superbad actually came together. Michael Cera, Jonah Hill and Christopher Mintz-Plasse were not major movie stars at the time. The Superbad cast became stars because of the film’s success, not the other way around.
Ironically, some corners of Hollywood seem to be moving in the opposite direction. Recent horror hits like Obsession have embraced a more filmmaker-driven model. Curry Barker reportedly arrived with much of the project already assembled, giving him leverage and the freedom to choose Focus Features as the film’s distributor. That approach has been paying off for new horror movies for years, and it makes me wonder whether smaller comedies could follow a similar blueprint. Instead of waiting for studios to eliminate every ounce of risk, perhaps the next Superbad gets made by creators who show up with the movie already in hand.
That is what makes Rogen’s comments so interesting. Whether Superbad’s humor would land the same way in 2026 is one conversation. Whether Hollywood would still take a chance on an original R-rated teen comedy with relatively unknown actors is another entirely. Maybe the future of the next raunchy teen comedy belongs to young filmmakers who show up with the movie ready to go, and for a fraction of the cost. Hey, if horror doesn’t need big stars, neither should comedy. Just bring the jokes.