It helps to have friends in high places, and rarely has that been proven truer than in the case of co-writers and directors Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s feature-length debut This is the End.
Despite being an effects-heavy studio production packed with visual effects that rung up a budgetary tab of around $40 million, the longtime buddies and regular collaborators called in no shortage of favors to ensure that the ensemble cast was overflowing with recognizable stars without the expense, giving it the distinction of boasting what might just be the most stacked roster any Hollywood comedy has ever seen.
That’s barely even hyperbolic when you consider that Rogen was joined by James Franco, Jonah Hill, Jay Baruchel, Danny McBride, Craig Robinson, Michael Cera, Mindy Kaling, David Krumholtz, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Rihanna, Paul Rudd, Martin Starr, Channing Tatum, Kevin Hart, Aziz Ansari, the entirety of The Backstreet Boys, Mindy Kaling, and Jason Segel to name only a handful, although there was one guest star who ended up generating plenty of controversy years after This is the End had been released.
Audiences may have gone wild for seeing Harry Potter alum Emma Watson pop up in a raunchy R-rated movie, but it eventually emerged that her role was intended to be a much larger one, but she ended up walking off the set after becoming uncomfortable with several of the scenes presented to her, something Rogen addressed in 2021 when reflecting upon what he called “a shitty situation” that he could have handled better.
All that aside, This is the End would prove to be a massive hit at the box office, and it continues to appeal to streaming subscribers a full 10 years on from its release. Per FlixPatrol, the biblical batsh*t insanity that engulfs Los Angeles has conspired to become the seventh most-watched feature with HBO Max audiences in the United States, so the end isn’t quite nigh just yet.