The 2009 action comedy Zombieland hit at just the right time, on the cusp of the full-on zombie craze, and went on to make more than $100 million. So why haven't we seen that long-rumored sequel? Director Ruben Fleischer is here to explain.

In an interview with Collider, Fleischer says they actually started working on a script shortly after the first film opened—but they never really found a story they liked. The director has since moved on to try out some other genres, and says the likelihood of a Zombieland sequel is actually pretty slim.

Here are his comments, including a tease of what shape the sequel might have taken:

"Well I think that the studio would be very excited to make it.  It's not that the studio is not excited, it's that we took one shot at the script [and] it wasn't something we all got excited to do.  And just on a personal level, I was really excited to, having made one movie, to make different movies, not just go back into that world again.  But now that I have some distance and I've done some other stuff, I would be more inclined to go back to Zombieland I guess you could say.  But at the time when the talk of the sequel was really--when it felt like it was possible--I was really kind of shying away from it just because I've only made one movie, I wanna make different movies with different people and learn different things, and so I was a little hesitant to just jump right back into the same thing...

Needless to say it was a continuation of the original story with the same characters.  I guess the only thing I could really say is that the threat to our heroes wasn't only zombies, like they encounter other people that they're all jockeying for positions."

You have to respect Fleischer's passion to not be pigeonholed as the "Zombieland guy," but the first film was a blast, and it's sad to think we might not ever get a sequel. But maybe in a few years he'll get the zombie itch again and give it a shot.

Would you like a Zombieland sequel?

(Via Collider)