title: Kenny Omega

text: Tyson Smith was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, on October 16, 1983. He grew up in Transcona, a Winnipeg suburb. As of 2016, Smith's mother works in family services while his father works for the Canadian government as a transport officer. Smith's affinity toward professional wrestling began during childhood when he watched tapes of WWE (then-WWF)'s "Saturday Night's Main Event", which became his favorite program. Growing up, Smith played ice hockey as a goalie. He also worked at branches of retailers IGA and Costco.


title: Kenny Omega

text: Smith first became interested in a career in professional wrestling after one of his friends from Transcona Collegiate Institute (TCI) began training with Top Rope Championship Wrestling (TRCW) in Winnipeg. Smith ended his ice hockey career plans and began training under TRCW promoter Bobby Jay, whom he met while he was stacking shelves at an IGA store. After training with Jay for a year, 16-year-old Smith made his professional wrestling debut in the year 2000. He went on to wrestle as part of TRCW for two years, where he developed the gimmick of a Hawaiian surfer named Kenny Omega. The surfer aspect was later dropped and replaced with an otaku-influenced gimmick. In 2001, he graduated from TCI and enrolled in university, but dropped out during his first year in order to fully pursue professional wrestling.


title: Kenny Omega

text: In 2001, Omega debuted in the Winnipeg-based promotion Premier Championship Wrestling (PCW). He won the PCW Heavyweight Championship and the PCW Tag Team Championship in 2003 and 2004, respectively. He unsuccessfully challenged Petey Williams for the TNA X Division Championship at the National Wrestling Alliance's 56th Anniversary Show on October 17. He later won an eight-man tournament, defeating Nate Hardy, Chris Sabin, and Amazing Red, to win the Premier Cup and the NWA Canada X-Division Championship on June 2. After competing for Harley Race's promotion World League Wrestling in September 2005, losing to Keith Walker in a match, Omega was invited to a week-long tryout by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE).


title: Kenny Omega

text: In October 2005, Smith was sent to Deep South Wrestling (DSW), WWE's then-developmental territory for a tryout, after which he was offered a developmental contract and subsequently assigned to DSW full-time. In August 2006, he requested his release from his contract. Omega later stated that his time in DSW was poor, particularly criticizing promoters Bill DeMott and Jody Hamilton, and trainer Bob Holly. Nevertheless, he expressed praise for trainer Dave Taylor. WWE has since reportedly approached him with contracts in the spring of 2014, three times in 2015, and in early 2019.


title: Kenny Omega

text: After his release from WWE, Omega intended to forge a career in mixed martial arts and entered Brazilian jiu-jitsu tournaments before deciding to return to professional wrestling. He then reinvented his wrestling persona and developed a new distinct move set. On March 8, 2008, Omega competed for Jersey All Pro Wrestling (JAPW) and captured the JAPW Heavyweight Championship by defeating Low Ki. On April 19, he retained his title against Frankie Kazarian at "Spring Massacre". Omega lost the JAPW Heavyweight Championship to Jay Lethal at Jersey City Rumble on February 28, 2009.


title: Kenny Omega

text: Omega competed in a six-way elimination match for the JAPW Light Heavyweight Championship on December 10, 2010, during which he was eliminated by the eventual winner, Jushin Thunder Liger. On May 15, 2011, he defeated Liger in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania during New Japan Pro-Wrestling's inaugural US tour to win the JAPW Light Heavyweight Championship. That same year, Omega wrestled in tapings for Wrestling Revolution Project, performing under the ring name Scott Carpenter. In a July 2013 interview, he said that although JAPW had not held a show since April 2012, he would be interested in returning to the company, citing how he still held the JAPW Light Heavyweight Championship. JAPW declared the Light Heavyweight Championship vacant on September 12, 2014. He went on to make appearances during PCW events in October 2018 and March 2019.


title: Kenny Omega

text: In 2006, Omega became captivated by Japanese wrestler Kota Ibushi after watching him perform as part of Japanese promotion DDT Pro-Wrestling, so he uploaded videos of himself having a DDT-style match to YouTube, in hopes they would interest Ibushi into working with him. After seeing the videos, DDT invited Omega to Japan to wrestle Ibushi, which Omega accepted; he made his first appearance for the promotion in August 2008. Omega stated that wrestling in Japan had been one of his dreams, as the local scene appealed to his creative side, feeling that he was able to show his personality and express himself. He and Ibushi then formed a tag team named the Golden☆Lovers.


title: Kenny Omega

text: In 2011, Omega competed in a match against a nine-year-old girl named Haruka. A video of the match went viral, making international news and receiving polarizing responses, after which Omega received death threats. Fellow professional wrestler Mick Foley, conversely, praised Omega's work as a heel, asking why he was not on national television. Omega later stated that he was asked to work with Haruka due to the safe nature of his work and that he personally trained her before their match. In the same year, Omega represented DDT in All Japan Pro Wrestling's 2011 Junior League, making his debut for the promotion on September 11. After three wins and two losses, he finished second in his block and did not advance to the finals.


title: Kenny Omega

text: On October 23, Omega defeated Kai to become the new World Junior Heavyweight Champion. He lost the title back to Kai on May 27, 2012, in his sixth title defense. On December 23, Omega defeated El Generico to win the KO-D Openweight Championship for the first time. On January 27, 2013, Omega defeated Isami Kodaka in a title vs. title match, retaining his title and winning the DDT Extreme Championship held by Kodaka. He lost the KO-D Openweight Championship to Shigehiro Irie on March 20, 2013. On May 26, Omega, Ibushi, and Gota Ihashi defeated Yuji Hino, Antonio Honda, and Daisuke Sasaki to win the KO-D 6-Man Tag Team Championship. Omega's team lost the championship to Hino, Honda, and Hoshitango. On August 25, Omega lost the DDT Extreme Championship to Danshoku Dino.


title: Kenny Omega

text: On January 26, 2014, the Golden☆Lovers defeated the respective teams of Kodaka and Yuko Miyamoto as well as Konosuke Takeshita and Tetsuya Endo in a three-way match to win the KO-D Tag Team Championship. The team of the Golden☆Lovers and Sasaki won the KO-D 6-Man Tag Team Championship from Irie, Keisuke Ishii, and Soma Takao in April but lost the title to Kudo, Masa Takanashi, and Yukio Sakaguchi the following month. On September 28, the Golden☆Lovers lost the KO-D Tag Team Championship to Takeshita and Endo. Omega returned to DDT for the promotion's "Ultimate Party" event on November 3, 2019, during which he and Riho scored a victory over Honda and Miyu Yamashita in a tag team match.


title: Kenny Omega

text: On November 1, 2008, Omega appeared for Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (PWG) during the 2008 Battle of Los Angeles, where he was defeated in the first round of the tournament by local talent Brandon Bonham. The next night, during a three-way tag team match in which Omega competed, he was Irish whipped into the ropes by Davey Richards, only for the force to snap the middle and bottom ropes, throwing Omega out of the ring. Three months later, Omega returned to the promotion at "Express Written Consent", where he was defeated by El Generico after referee Rick Knox hit him with a leaping clothesline after Knox grew tired of Omega abusing him. At PWG's hundredth show on April 12, 2009, he lost to Bryan Danielson.


title: Kenny Omega

text: On November 20, 2009, Omega entered the year's Battle of Los Angeles, which was contested for the vacant PWG World Championship, defeating Kevin Steen, Scott Lost, and Joey Ryan in the first, quarter, and semifinal rounds, respectively. He defeated Roderick Strong in the final round to win the tournament and become the PWG World Champion. On February 27, 2010, Omega lost the championship to Richards at "As the Worm Turns" in his first defense.


title: Kenny Omega

text: On October 27, 2012, Omega made his first appearance for PWG in over two and a half years at "Failure to Communicate" when he teamed with El Generico in a tag team match, where they defeated The Young Bucks (Matt and Nick Jackson). Omega returned to PWG to compete in the 2014 Battle of Los Angeles on August 29, advancing all the way to the semifinals until he was eliminated by the eventual winner of the tournament, Ricochet. He returned again for the 2017 Battle of Los Angeles on September 2, teaming with The Young Bucks and defeating Flamita, Penta 0M, and Rey Fenix in a six-man tag team match.


title: Kenny Omega

text: On July 25, 2008, Omega appeared for the promotion Ring of Honor (ROH), losing to Delirious in Toronto, Ontario. The following night, Omega competed at ROH New Horizons, losing to Silas Young. The following year, he defeated Austin Aries, Jay Briscoe, and Roderick Strong in a Four-Corner Survival match. On November 14, 2009, Omega competed against Aries for the ROH World Championship but was defeated. At Final Battle 2009, he competed in a Four-Corner Survival match, which was won by Claudio Castagnoli. In September 2010, Omega competed for New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), losing to Prince Devitt in a match for Devitt's IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship. On October 11 at Destruction '10, the Golden☆Lovers defeated Apollo 55 (Devitt and Ryusuke Taguchi) to win the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship. On January 23, 2011, at "Fantastica Mania 2011", an NJPW and Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre co-promoted event in Tokyo, the Golden☆Lovers lost title back to Apollo 55. He also competed in the 2010 and 2011 Best of the Super Juniors tournaments.


title: Kenny Omega

text: Omega returned to NJPW in May 2013 to take part in the 2013 Best of the Super Juniors, where he managed to win five out of his eight round-robin matches, advancing to the semifinals of the tournament. On June 9, Omega was defeated in his semifinal match by Devitt, following interference from Devitt's stable, Bullet Club. A year later, he took part in New Japan's 2014 Best of the Super Juniors tournament from May 30 to June 6, finishing with a record of three wins and four losses, with a loss against Taichi on the final day, which cost him a spot in the semifinals.


title: Kenny Omega

text: On October 3, 2014, NJPW held a press conference to announce that Omega was set to sign with the promotion once his DDT contract expired on October 26. Omega, dubbing himself the Cleaner, made his debut under contract on November 8 at Power Struggle, where he was revealed as the newest member of Bullet Club, despite having previously dismissed the idea of joining the villainous foreigner stable, claiming that he did not consider himself a "gaijin". Omega defeated Ryusuke Taguchi to win the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship for the first time at Wrestle Kingdom 9 in Tokyo Dome on January 4, 2015. He retained the title over Taguchi in a rematch on February 11 at The New Beginning in Osaka. In the following months, he successfully defended the title against Máscara Dorada at Invasion Attack 2015 and Alex Shelley at Wrestling Dontaku 2015.


title: Kenny Omega

text: Omega lost the title to Kushida on July 5 at Dominion 7.5 in Osaka-jo Hall. On September 23 at Destruction in Okayama, he regained the title from Kushida, following an interference from Bullet Club stablemate Karl Anderson. On January 4, 2016, Omega once again lost the title to Kushida at Wrestle Kingdom 10 in Tokyo Dome. The following day, Omega teamed with Bullet Club leader A.J. Styles to defeat Shinsuke Nakamura and Yoshi-Hashi in a tag team match. After the match, Bullet Club turned on Styles, with Omega taking over the leadership of the stable.


title: Kenny Omega

text: At The New Beginning in Niigata on February 14, 2016, Omega defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi to win the vacant IWGP Intercontinental Championship. Six days later, he and The Young Bucks–the Bullet Club subgroup known as The Elite–won the NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship from The Briscoe Brothers and Toru Yano at , an event co-produced by NJPW and ROH. That same month, Omega had signed on to become a regular competitor for ROH. The Elite lost the title to Tanahashi, Michael Elgin, and Yoshitatsu on April 10 at Invasion Attack 2016. On April 27, Omega retained the IWGP Intercontinental Championship over Elgin, which marked the first time two Canadians main evented an NJPW event. On May 3 at Wrestling Dontaku 2016, The Elite regained the NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship. On June 19 at Dominion 6.19 in Osaka-jo Hall, Omega lost the IWGP Intercontinental Championship to Elgin in NJPW's inaugural ladder match. On July 3, The Elite lost the NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship to Matt Sydal, Ricochet, and Satoshi Kojima.


title: Kenny Omega

text: From July 22 to August 13, Omega took part in the round-robin portion of the 2016 G1 Climax, where he advanced to the finals after winning his block with a record of six wins and three losses. On August 14, he defeated Hirooki Goto in the finals of the tournament and earned an opportunity to compete for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. Omega not only won the tournament in his first attempt, but also became the first non-Japanese G1 Climax winner in history. Towards the end of the year, despite having the opportunity to return to ROH, Omega was asked by NJPW not to take any outside bookings heading into Wrestle Kingdom 11 in Tokyo Dome. Due to this, Omega did not appear for ROH for the rest of 2016. He lost to IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada in the main event of Wrestle Kingdom 11 on January 4, 2017. At 46 minutes and 45 seconds, the match was, at the time, the longest in the history of the January 4 Tokyo Dome Show. This record was broken by a 2021 match between Kota Ibushi and Tetsuya Naito. Wrestling journalist Dave Meltzer gave the match a six-star rating in the "Wrestling Observer Newsletter", adding that Omega and Okada "may have put on the greatest match in pro wrestling history". The match was also praised by fellow professional wrestlers Daniel Bryan, Mick Foley, and Stone Cold Steve Austin.


title: Kenny Omega

text: On January 6, 2017, Omega stated that he would be "stepping away from Japan to reassess [his] future", adding that he was "weighing all options". On January 26, Omega announced on "Wrestling Observer Radio" that he would be flying back to Japan in February to negotiate a new deal with NJPW for "at least one more year". He returned during the first night of in February. Omega competed against Kazuchika Okada in a match for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship on June 11 at Dominion 6.11 in Osaka-jo Hall, which ended in a 60-minute time limit draw. The match was rated 6 stars by Dave Meltzer, higher than their previous match, making it the highest-rated match by Meltzer at that time.


title: Kenny Omega

text: During the G1 Special in USA in July 2017, Omega defeated Michael Elgin, Jay Lethal, and Tomohiro Ishii in an eight-man tournament to become the inaugural IWGP United States Heavyweight Champion. The event also saw signs of dissension between Omega and new Bullet Club member Cody. On August 12, Omega won his block in the 2017 G1 Climax tournament with a record of seven wins and two losses, advancing to the finals, where he was eventually defeated by Tetsuya Naito. He successfully defended his title against Juice Robinson on September 24 at Destruction in Kobe and against Yoshi-Hashi on October 15 at the NJPW and ROH-co-produced Global Wars: Chicago event.


title: Kenny Omega

text: At Wrestle Kingdom 12 on January 4, 2018, Omega defeated the debuting Chris Jericho in a no disqualification match to retain the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship. The bout was credited as having grown international interest in NJPW, particularly from North America. On January 28, Omega lost the title to Jay White at The New Beginning in Sapporo. After the match, Bullet Club member Adam Page confronted White but was stopped by Omega, who accepted defeat, which brought out Cody. After months of tension over the leadership of the Bullet Club faction, Cody hit Omega with a rolling cutter. When Page attempted to assist Cody in attacking Omega, Kota Ibushi returned to the ring after having competed earlier in the night to save his former partner, leading to an embrace between Omega and Ibushi and a rekindling of their friendship. Omega returned to ROH for the Supercard of Honor XII event on April 7, 2018, where he lost to Cody.


title: Kenny Omega

text: On June 9, Omega defeated Okada in a two out of three falls match with no time limit for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship at Dominion 6.9 in Osaka-jo Hall, becoming the first Canadian wrestler to win the title in the process. The match received a seven-star rating from Meltzer, which remains the highest rating ever given to a match. Omega then defeated Cody to retain his title at NJPW's G1 Special in San Francisco on July 7. Following the match, Bullet Club members Tama Tonga, Tanga Loa, Bad Luck Fale, and King Haku attacked Omega, Cody, and every other Bullet Club member who tried to aid them, forming their own branch within the stable. Omega and Cody subsequently reconciled alongside the rest of Bullet Club.


title: Kenny Omega

text: In September 2018, Omega appeared at the independent event All In, where he defeated Penta El Zero. He successfully defended the IWGP Heavyweight Championship against Ishii at Destruction later that month as well as against Cody and Ibushi in a three-way match at King of Pro-Wrestling the next month. It was revealed in October that Cody, Page, and Marty Scurll would be known alongside Omega and The Young Bucks as part of The Elite, with the group also stating that they were "no longer affiliated with Bullet Club". "Pro Wrestling Illustrated" named Omega the No. 1 professional wrestler of 2018 in its annual list of the top 500 male wrestlers. Omega lost the IWGP Heavyweight Championship to Hiroshi Tanahashi at Wrestle Kingdom 13 on January 4, 2019, ending his reign at 209 days. He departed NJPW after his contract expired at the end of January.


title: Kenny Omega

text: Omega signed a four-year contract with All Elite Wrestling (AEW) on February 7, 2019. Along with Matt and Nick Jackson, Omega serves as an executive vice president of the promotion as well as one of its in-ring talents. He competed at the promotion's inaugural event, Double or Nothing, where he lost to Chris Jericho in the main event, after which both men were attacked by Jon Moxley. The following month at Fyter Fest, Omega attacked Moxley in retaliation for Moxley's previous assault. A match between Omega and Moxley was scheduled for the All Out pay-per-view, however, Moxley pulled out of the match due to a MRSA infection. Omega instead competed against Pac at All Out, where he was defeated. On the premiere episode of "Dynamite" on October 2, Omega was taken out by a returning Moxley during a six-man tag team match, with Omega's team later losing the contest. In the main event of Full Gear on November 9, Omega was defeated by Moxley in an unsanctioned Lights Out match.


title: Kenny Omega

text: At , which aired on the January 22, 2020, episode of "Dynamite", Omega and Adam Page defeated SoCal Uncensored (Frankie Kazarian and Scorpio Sky) to win the AEW World Tag Team Championship, marking the first title change in the promotion's history. At Revolution on February 29, Omega and Page retained the championship against The Young Bucks. Omega, Page, and The Young Bucks competed alongside Matt Hardy against The Inner Circle–which comprises Jericho, Sammy Guevara, Jake Hager, and Santana and Ortiz–in a Stadium Stampede match on May 23 at Double or Nothing, where Omega's team was victorious. On September 5 at All Out, Omega and Page lost the AEW World Tag Team Championship to FTR (Cash Wheeler and Dax Harwood).


title: Kenny Omega

text: Following the loss to FTR, Omega stated that he was going to return to singles competition. From October to November 2020, he participated in a tournament to determine the number one contender for the AEW World Championship and won it by defeating Adam Page in the final round at Full Gear. At Winter Is Coming on December 2, Omega defeated Jon Moxley to become the AEW World Champion for the first time, with the help of Don Callis, and turned heel. Following the win, he appeared alongside Callis for Impact Wrestling on the December 8 episode of its program, "Impact!", establishing a partnership between the two. At the Hard To Kill pay-per-view in January 2021, he competed for the promotion, teaming with fellow former Bullet Club stablemates Karl Anderson and Doc Gallows to defeat Rich Swann, Chris Sabin, and Moose. At Revolution in March, Omega retained the title over Moxley in an Exploding Barbed Wire Deathmatch.


title: Kenny Omega

text: At Impact Wrestling's Rebellion pay-per-view in April 2021, Omega defeated Swann in a Winner Takes All match to retain his AEW World Championship and also win the Impact World Championship. The following month, he successfully defended the AEW World Championship at the Double or Nothing event against Pac and Orange Cassidy in a three-way match. At Slammiversary, Omega defeated Sami Callihan in a no disqualification match to retain the Impact World Championship. On the premiere episode of "Rampage" on August 13, he lost the Impact World Championship to Christian Cage. At All Out in September, Omega defeated Cage to retain the AEW World Championship. His victory celebration with The Elite–comprising Omega, The Young Bucks, Gallows, and Anderson–saw the debuts of Adam Cole, who embraced the group, and Bryan Danielson, who joined Cage's side. He lost the title to Page in November at Full Gear. That same year, "Pro Wrestling Illustrated" ranked him No. 1 on its list of the top 500 male professional wrestlers for the second time. Omega took a hiatus from competing in November 2021 due to injuries. He underwent hernia and knee surgeries.


title: Kenny Omega

text: Omega returned on the August 17, 2022, episode of "Dynamite" as The Young Bucks' mystery partner in the inaugural AEW World Trios Championship tournament, where they defeated La Facción Ingobernable (Andrade El Idolo, Rush, and Dragon Lee) in the first round. The following week, they defeated United Empire (Will Ospreay and Aussie Open (Mark Davis and Kyle Fletcher)) in the second round. At All Out on September 4, The Elite defeated "Hangman" Adam Page and The Dark Order (Alex Reynolds and John Silver) to become the inaugural AEW World Trios Champions.


title: Kenny Omega

text: After the All Out post-event media scrum, Omega and The Young Bucks got into a legitimate physical altercation with AEW World Champion CM Punk and his friend Ace Steel, following berating comments he had made about them and others during the scrum. As a result, AEW president Tony Khan suspended all involved. On the September 7 episode of "Dynamite", Khan announced that both the World Championship and Trios Championship, held by Omega and the Bucks, were vacated.


title: Kenny Omega

text: In 2019, AEW announced a partnership with Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide, and Omega made his debut for the latter promotion at its Triplemanía XXVII event, teaming with Matt and Nick Jackson in a losing effort against Fénix, Pentagón Jr., and Laredo Kid. At Héroes Inmortales XIII in October, Omega won the AAA Mega Championship from Fénix. He retained the title against Dragon Lee at Triplemanía Regia in December and against Laredo Kid at Triplemanía XXVIII the following year. He defeated Andrade El Idolo to remain the AAA Mega Champion at Triplemanía XXIX in August 2021. In November, Omega vacated the AAA Mega Championship due to injuries, ending his reign as the title's longest-reigning holder.


title: Kenny Omega

text: A fan of video games, Smith incorporates ideas from the medium into wrestling maneuvers, entrance music, and gimmick concepts. The Kenny Omega ring name was originally inspired by the character Omega Weapon from the "Final Fantasy" video game series. He named his finishing maneuver the "One-Winged Angel" (a reference to "Final Fantasy VII" character Sephiroth) and the running knee strike he employs as a signature maneuver the "V-Trigger" (a technique used in "Street Fighter V"); integrated the Hadouken attack from the "Street Fighter" series as a signature move; and used of variations of "Mega Man" antagonist Dr. Wily's theme music as entrance themes. For his final appearance for NJPW at Wrestle Kingdom 13, Smith collaborated with "Undertale" creator Toby Fox to create a custom entrance video in the style of the game. In addition to video games, Smith also draws inspiration from the television show "" and superhero cartoons to develop elements of his in-ring persona. At Fyter Fest in June 2019, Smith also donned ring gear that references the character Akuma from the "Street Fighter" series.


title: Kenny Omega

text: During his run in Bullet Club, Smith did his interviews entirely in English, refusing to speak Japanese. In an interview, he stated that he was told that his otaku gimmick was "too bubbly" for Bullet Club, which led to him adopting the Cleaner nickname as a reference to people who clean up crime scenes. Smith cited the character Albert Wesker from the "Resident Evil" video game series as well as Sylvester Stallone's character, Marion "Cobra" Cobretti, from the film "Cobra" as inspirations for the Cleaner gimmick. Although Smith originally intended to embody the gimmick straightforwardly, he later integrated comedy into the persona as a response to people who thought he was portraying a janitor, doing so by coming out for his matches holding a mop and a broom.


title: Kenny Omega

text: Smith considers himself straight edge, as he abstains from alcohol, tobacco, and drug consumption. He has a younger sister. Smith has suffered from vertigo since 2018. He is close friends with fellow professional wrestler and former tag team partner Michael Nakazawa.


title: Kenny Omega

text: Smith is fluent in Japanese, and as of August 2018, he resided in the Katsushika ward in the east end of Tokyo. Smith told ESPN.com in October 2016 that he "loved Japanese culture before even realizing it was, in fact, Japanese culture" and that his favorite video games and cartoons were Japanese. He has since obtained Japanese citizenship. Regarding his life outside of wrestling, Smith said in 2016 that he had no time to think about relationships because he was completely focused on his wrestling goals.


title: Kenny Omega

text: A self-professed avid gamer, Smith hosted a YouTube series called "Cleaner's Corner", in which he played some of his favorite video games. He also attends video game conventions during his spare time. On June 26, 2016, he made a special guest appearance at Community Effort Orlando, defeating fellow professional wrestler Xavier Woods in a game of "Street Fighter V". Smith portrayed the character Cody Travers in a live-action portion in a trailer for "Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition" in 2018.


title: Jacobitism

text: Jacobitism (; , ; , ) was a political movement that supported the restoration of the senior line of the House of Stuart to the British throne. The name derives from the first name of James II and VII, which in Latin translates as "Jacobus". When James went into exile after the November 1688 Glorious Revolution, the Parliament of England argued that he had abandoned the English throne, which they offered to his Protestant daughter Mary II, and her husband William III. In April, the Scottish Convention held that he "forfeited" the throne of Scotland by his actions, listed in the Articles of Grievances.


title: Jacobitism

text: The Revolution thus created the principle of a contract between monarch and people, which if violated meant the monarch could be removed. Jacobites argued monarchs were appointed by God, or divine right, and could not be removed, making the post-1688 regime illegitimate. While this was the most consistent difference, Jacobitism was a complex mix of ideas, many opposed by the Stuarts themselves; in Ireland, it meant tolerance for Catholicism, which James supported, but it also meant granting Irish autonomy and reversing the 17th-century land settlements, both of which he opposed. In 1745, clashes between Prince Charles and Scottish Jacobites over the 1707 Union and divine right were central to the internal conflicts that ended it as a viable movement.


title: Jacobitism

text: Outside Ireland, Jacobitism was strongest in the western Scottish Highlands, Perthshire and Aberdeenshire, and areas of Northern England with a high proportion of Catholics such as western Lancashire, Northumberland and County Durham. Sympathisers were also present in parts of Wales, the West Midlands and South West England, to some degree overlapping with areas that were strongly Royalist during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. The movement had an international dimension; several European powers sponsored the Jacobites as an extension of larger conflicts, while many Jacobite exiles served in foreign armies.


title: Jacobitism

text: In addition to the 1689–1691 Williamite War in Ireland and the Jacobite rising of 1689 in Scotland, there were serious revolts in 1715, 1719 and 1745; abortive French-backed invasion attempts in 1708 and 1744; and several unsuccessful plots. While the 1745 rising briefly threatened the Hanoverian monarchy and forced the recall of British troops from Continental Europe, its collapse and withdrawal of French support in 1748 ended Jacobitism as a serious political movement.


title: Jacobitism

text: Jacobite ideology originated with James VI and I, first monarch of England, Scotland and Ireland in 1603. Its basis was divine right, which claimed his authority came from God, and the crown's descent by indefeasible hereditary right: James and his supporters emphasised his right to the throne by blood to forestall controversy over his appointment by Elizabeth I as her successor. Personal rule by the monarch eliminated the need for Parliaments, and required political and religious union, concepts widely unpopular in all three kingdoms.


title: Jacobitism

text: "Divine right" also clashed with Catholic allegiance to the Pope and with Protestant nonconformists, since both argued there was an authority above the king. The 17th century belief that 'true religion' and 'good government' were one and the same meant disputes in one area fed into the other; Millenarianism and belief in the imminence of the Second Coming meant many Protestants viewed such issues as urgent and real.


title: Jacobitism

text: As the first step towards union, James began standardising religious practices between the churches of England, Scotland and Ireland. After his death in 1625, this was continued by his son Charles I, who lacked his political sensitivity; by the late 1630s, instituting Personal Rule in 1629, enforcing Laudian reforms on the Church of England, and ruling without Parliament led to a political crisis. Similar measures in Scotland caused the 1639–1640 Bishops' Wars, and installation of a Covenanter government.


title: Jacobitism

text: Organised by a small group of Catholic nobility, the October 1641 Irish Rebellion was the cumulative effect of land confiscation, loss of political control, anti-Catholic measures and economic decline. Intended as a bloodless coup, its leaders quickly lost control, leading to atrocities on both sides. In May, a Covenanter army landed in Ulster to support Scots settlers; although Charles and Parliament both supported raising an army to suppress the rebellion, neither trusted the other with its control, tensions that ultimately led to the outbreak of the First English Civil War in August 1642.


title: Jacobitism

text: In 1642, the Catholic Confederacy representing the Irish insurgents proclaimed allegiance to Charles, but the Stuarts were an unreliable ally, since concessions in Ireland cost them Protestant support in all three kingdoms. In addition, the Adventurers' Act, approved by Charles in March 1642, funded suppression of the revolt by confiscating land from Irish Catholics, much of it owned by members of the Confederacy. The result was a three-way contest between the Confederacy, Royalist forces under the Protestant Duke of Ormond, and a Covenanter-led army in Ulster. The latter were increasingly at odds with the English government; after Charles' execution in January 1649, Ormond combined these factions to resist the 1649 to 1652 Cromwellian conquest of Ireland.


title: Jacobitism

text: Charles II repudiated his alliance with the Confederacy, in return for Scottish support in the Third English Civil War, and Ormond went into exile in 1650. Defeat in 1652 led to the mass confiscation of Catholic and Royalist land, and its re-distribution among English Parliamentary soldiers and Protestant settlers. The three kingdoms were combined into the Commonwealth of England, regaining their separate status when the monarchy was restored in 1660.


title: Jacobitism

text: Charles's reign was dominated by the expansionist policies of Louis XIV of France, seen as a threat to Protestant Europe. When his brother and heir James announced his conversion to Catholicism in 1677, an attempt was made to bar him from the English throne. Nevertheless, he became king in February 1685 with widespread support in England and Scotland; a Catholic monarch was preferable to excluding the 'natural heir', and rebellions by Protestant dissidents quickly suppressed. It was also viewed as temporary; James was 52, his second marriage was childless after 11 years, and his Protestant daughter Mary was heir.


title: Jacobitism

text: His religion made James popular among Irish Catholics, whose position had not improved under his brother. By 1685, Catholic land ownership had fallen to 22%, versus 90% in 1600, and after 1673, a series of proclamations deprived them of the right to bear arms or hold public office. The Catholic Richard Talbot, 1st Earl of Tyrconnell was appointed Lord Deputy of Ireland in 1687, and began building a Catholic establishment that could survive James. Fearing a short reign, Tyrconnell moved at a speed that destabilised all three kingdoms.


title: Jacobitism

text: James dismissed the English and Scottish Parliaments when they refused to approve his measures of religious tolerance, which he enforced using the Royal Prerogative. Doing so threatened to re-open disputes over religion, reward those who rebelled in 1685 and undermine his own supporters. It also ignored the impact of the 1685 Edict of Fontainebleau, which revoked tolerance for French Protestants and created an estimated 400,000 refugees, 40,000 of whom settled in London. Two events turned discontent into rebellion, the first being the birth of James's son on 10 June 1688, which created the prospect of a Catholic dynasty. The second was James' prosecution of the Seven Bishops, which seemed to go beyond tolerance for Catholicism and actively attack the Church of England; their acquittal on 30 June caused widespread rejoicing throughout England and Scotland, and destroyed James's political authority.


title: Jacobitism

text: In 1685, many feared civil war if James were bypassed; by 1688, even the Earl of Sunderland, his chief minister, felt only his removal could prevent it. Sunderland secretly co-ordinated an Invitation to William, assuring Mary and her husband William of Orange of English support for armed intervention. William landed in Brixham on 5 November with 14,000 men; as he advanced, James's army deserted and he went into exile on 23 December. In February 1689, the English Parliament appointed William and Mary joint monarchs of England, while the Scots followed suit in March.


title: Jacobitism

text: Most of Ireland was still controlled by Tyrconnell, where James landed on 12 March 1689 with 6,000 French troops. The 1689-to-1691 Williamite War in Ireland highlighted two recurring trends; for James and his successors, the main prize was England, with Ireland and Scotland secondary to that, while the primary French objective was to absorb British resources, not necessarily restore the Stuarts. Elections in May 1689 produced the first Irish Parliament with a Catholic majority since 1613. It repealed the Cromwellian land seizures, confiscated land from Williamites, and proclaimed Ireland a 'distinct kingdom from England', measures annulled after defeat in 1691.


title: Jacobitism

text: A Jacobite rising in Scotland achieved some initial success but was ultimately suppressed. Several days after the Irish Jacobites were defeated at The Battle of the Boyne in July 1690, victory at Beachy Head gave the French temporary control of the English Channel. James returned to France to urge an immediate invasion of England, but the Anglo-Dutch fleet soon regained maritime supremacy, and the opportunity was lost.


title: Jacobitism

text: The Irish Jacobites and their French allies were finally defeated at the battle of Aughrim in 1691, and the Treaty of Limerick ended the war in Ireland; future risings on behalf of the exiled Stuarts were confined to England and Scotland. The 1701 Act of Settlement barred Catholics from the English throne, and when Anne became the last Stuart monarch in 1702, her heir was her Protestant cousin Sophia of Hanover, not her Catholic half-brother James. Ireland retained a separate Parliament until 1800, but the 1707 Union combined England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain. Anne viewed this as the unified Protestant kingdom which her predecessors had failed to achieve.


title: Jacobitism

text: The exiled Stuarts continued to agitate for a return to power, based on the support they retained within the three kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland. Doing so required external help, most consistently supplied by France, while Spain backed the 1719 Rising. While talks were also held at different times with Sweden, Prussia, and Russia, these never produced concrete results. Although the Stuarts were useful as a lever, their foreign backers generally had little interest in their restoration.


title: Jacobitism

text: Historian Frank McLynn identifies seven primary drivers in Jacobitism, noting that while the movement contained "sincere men [..] who aimed solely to restore the Stuarts", it "provided a source of legitimacy for political dissent of all kinds". Establishing the ideology of active participants is complicated by the fact that "by and large, those who wrote most did not act, and those who acted wrote little, if anything." Later historians have characterised Jacobitism in a variety of ways, including as a revolutionary extension of anti-Court ideology; an aristocratic reaction against a growth in executive power; feudal opposition to the growth of capitalism; or as a product of nationalist feeling in Scotland and Ireland.


title: Jacobitism

text: Jacobitism's main ideological tenets drew on a political theology shared by Non-juring High church Anglicans and Scots Episcopalians. They were, firstly, the divine right of kings, their accountability to God, not man or Parliament; secondly that monarchy was a divine institution; thirdly, the crown's descent by indefeasible hereditary right, which could not be overturned or annulled; and lastly the scriptural injunction of passive obedience and non-resistance, even towards monarchs of which the individual subject might disapprove.


title: Jacobitism

text: Jacobite propagandists argued such divinely sanctioned authority was the main moral safeguard of society, while its absence led to party strife. They claimed the 1688 Revolution had allowed self-interested minorities, such as Whigs, religious dissenters, and foreigners, to take control of the state and oppress the common people. However, views on the 'correct' balance of rights and duties between monarch and subject varied, and Jacobites attempted to distinguish between 'arbitrary' and 'absolute' power. Non-juring Church of Ireland clergyman Charles Leslie was perhaps the most extreme divine right theorist, but even he argued the monarch was bound by "his oath to God, as well as his promise to his people" and "the laws of justice and honour". Another common theme in Jacobite pamphlets was the implication that economic or other upheavals in the British Isles were punishment for ejecting a divinely appointed monarch, although after 1710, pamphlet writers instead began blaming the "malevolent" Whig political party for exiling the Stuarts, rather than the nation collectively.


title: Jacobitism

text: Such sentiments were not always consistently held within the Jacobite community, or restricted to Jacobites alone: many Whigs and Church of England clergy also argued the post 1688 succession was "divinely ordained". After the Act of Settlement, Jacobite propagandists deemphasised the purely legitimist elements in their writing and by 1745, active promotion of hereditary and indefeasible right was restricted largely to a few Scots Episcopalians such as Lords Pitsligo and Balmerino.


title: Jacobitism

text: Instead they began to focus on populist themes such as opposition to a standing army, electoral corruption and social injustice. By the 1750s, Charles himself promised triannual parliaments, disbanding the army and legal guarantees on freedom of the press. Such tactics broadened their appeal but also carried risks, since they could always be undercut by a government prepared to offer similar concessions. The ongoing Stuart focus on England and regaining a united British throne led to tensions with their broader-based supporters in 1745, when the primary goal of most Scots Jacobites was ending the 1707 Union. This meant that following victory at Prestonpans in September, they preferred to negotiate, rather than invade England as Charles wanted.


title: Jacobitism

text: More generally, Jacobite theorists reflected a broader conservative current in Enlightenment thought, appealing to those attracted to a monarchist solution to perceived modern decadence. Populist songs and tracts presented the Stuarts as capable of correcting a wide range of ills and restoring social harmony, as well as contrasting Dutch and Hanoverian "foreigners" with a man who even in exile continued to consume English beef and beer. While particularly calculated to appeal to Tories, the wide range of themes adopted by Jacobite pamphleteers and agents periodically drew in disaffected Whigs and former radicals. Such "Whig-Jacobites" were highly valued by the exiled court, although many viewed James II as a potentially weak king from whom it would be easy to extract concessions in the event of a restoration.


title: Jacobitism

text: The role of Jacobitism in Irish political history is debated; some argue that it was a broad-based popular movement and the main driver of Irish Catholic nationalism between 1688 and 1795. Others see it as part of "a pan-British movement, rooted in confessional and dynastic loyalties", very different from 19th-century Irish nationalism. Historian Vincent Morely describes Irish Jacobitism as a distinctive ideology within the broader movement that "emphasised the Milesian ancestry of the Stuarts, their loyalty to Catholicism, and Ireland's status as a kingdom with a Crown of its own." In the first half of the 18th century, Jacobitism was "the primary allegiance of politically conscious Catholics".


title: Jacobitism

text: Irish Catholic support for James was predicated on his religion and assumed willingness to deliver their demands. In 1685, Gaelic poet Dáibhí Ó Bruadair celebrated his accession as ensuring the supremacy of Catholicism and the Irish language. Tyrconnell's expansion of the army by the creation of Catholic regiments was welcomed by Diarmuid Mac Carthaigh, as enabling the native Irish 'Tadhg' to be armed and to assert his dominance over "John" the English Protestant. Conversely, most Irish Protestants viewed his policies as designed to "utterly ruin the Protestant interest and the English interest in Ireland". This restricted Protestant Jacobitism to "doctrinaire clergymen, disgruntled Tory landowners and Catholic converts", who opposed Catholicism but still viewed James' removal as unlawful. A few Church of Ireland ministers refused to swear allegiance to the new regime and became Non-Jurors, the most famous being propagandist Charles Leslie.


title: Jacobitism

text: Since regaining England was his primary objective, James viewed Ireland as a strategic dead-end but Louis XIV of France argued it was the best place to launch a war, since the administration was controlled by Tyrconnell and his cause popular among the majority Catholic population. James landed at Kinsale in March 1689 and in May called the first Parliament of Ireland since 1666, primarily seeking taxes to fund the war effort. Tyrconnell ensured a predominantly Catholic electorate and candidates by issuing new borough charters, admitting Catholics into city corporations, and removing "disloyal members". Since elections were not held in many northern areas, the Irish House of Commons was 70 members short, and 224 out of 230 MPs were Catholic.


title: Jacobitism

text: Known to 19th century Irish historians as the "Patriot Parliament", it opened by proclaiming James as the rightful king and condemning the "treasonous subjects" who had ousted him. There were some divisions among Irish Jacobites on the issue of returning all Catholic lands confiscated in 1652 after the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland. The majority of the Irish House of Commons wanted the 1652 Cromwellian Act of Settlement repealed in its entirety, with ownership returned to that prevailing in 1641. This was opposed by a minority within the Catholic elite who had benefited from the 1662 Act of Settlement, a group that included James himself, Tyrconnell and other members of the Irish House of Lords. Instead, they suggested those dispossessed in the 1650s should be restored to half their estates and paid compensation for the remainder. However, with the Commons overwhelmingly in favour of complete restoration, Tyrconnell persuaded the Lords to approve the bill.


title: Jacobitism

text: More serious were differences between Parliament and James, who resisted any measures that might "dissatisfy his Protestant subjects" in England and Scotland. These conflicted with the demands of the Irish Parliament, which in addition to land restoration included toleration for Catholicism and Irish autonomy. A French diplomat observed James had 'a heart too English to do anything that might vex the English.' He therefore resisted measures that might "dissatisfy his Protestant subjects" in England and Scotland, complaining "he was fallen into the hands of a people who would ram many hard things down his throat". When it became clear Parliament would only vote war taxes if he met their minimum demands, James reluctantly gave his assent to Tyrconnell's land bill and passed a Bill of attainder, confiscating estates from 2,000 mostly Protestant "rebels". Although he also approved Parliament's resolution that Ireland was a "distinct kingdom" and laws passed in England did not apply there, he refused to abolish Poynings' Law, which required Irish legislation be approved by the English Parliament.


title: Jacobitism

text: Despite his own Catholicism, James viewed the Protestant Church of Ireland as an important part of his support base; he insisted on retaining its legal pre-eminence, although agreeing landowners would only have to pay tithes to clergy of their own religion. However, the price for these concessions was to largely remove the Protestant element from Irish Jacobitism, which thereafter became almost entirely a Catholic ideology. After 1690, Irish Jacobites were also split between Tyrconnell's 'Peace party' who continued to seek a negotiated solution, and a 'War party' led by Patrick Sarsfield who favoured fighting on to the end.


title: Jacobitism

text: James left Ireland after defeat at the Boyne in 1690, telling his supporters to "shift for themselves". This led some to depict him as "Séamus an chaca", "James of the shit", who had deserted his loyal followers. However, Gaelic scholar Breandán Ó Buachalla claims his reputation subsequently recovered as "the rightful king...destined to return' and upper-class Irish Jacobite writers like Charles O'Kelly and Nicholas Plunkett blamed "corrupt English and Scottish advisors" for his apparent desertion.


title: Jacobitism

text: After 1691, measures passed by the 1689 Parliament were annulled, penal laws barred Catholics from public life, while the Act of Attainder was used to justify further land confiscations. 12,000 Jacobite soldiers went into exile in the diaspora known as the Flight of the Wild Geese, the majority of whom were later absorbed into the French Irish Brigade. About 1,000 men were recruited for the French and Spanish armies annually, many with a "tangible commitment to the Stuart cause". Elements of the French Irish Brigade participated in the Scottish Jacobite rising of 1745.


title: Jacobitism

text: Irish-language poets, especially in Munster, continued to champion the cause after James' death; in 1715, Eoin O Callanain described his son James Francis Edward Stuart as ""taoiseach na nGaoidheal"" or "chieftain of the Gaels". As in England, throughout the 1720s, James' birthday on 10 June was marked by celebrations in Dublin, and towns like Kilkenny and Galway. These were often accompanied by rioting, suggested as proof of popular pro-Jacobite sympathies. Others argue riots were common in 18th-century urban areas and see them as a "series of ritualised clashes".


title: Jacobitism

text: Combined with Jacobite rhetoric and symbolism among rapparees or bandits, some historians claim this provides evidence of continuing popular support for a Stuart restoration. Other however argue that it is hard to discern "how far rhetorical Jacobitism reflected support for the Stuarts, as opposed to discontent with the status quo". Nevertheless, fears of resurgent Catholic Jacobitism among the ruling Protestant minority meant anti-Catholic Penal Laws remained in place for most of the eighteenth century.


title: Jacobitism

text: There was no Irish rising in either 1715 or 1745 to accompany those in England and Scotland; one suggestion is after 1691, for various reasons Irish Jacobites looked to European allies, rather than relying on a domestic revolt. From the 1720s on, many Catholics were willing to swear loyalty to the Hanoverian regime, but not the Oath of Abjuration, which required renouncing the authority of the Pope, as well as the Stuarts. After the effective demise of the Jacobite cause in the 1750s, many Catholic gentry withdrew support from the Stuarts. Instead, they created organisations like the Catholic Convention, which worked within the existing state for redress of Catholic grievances. When Charles died in 1788, Irish nationalists looked for alternative liberators, among them the French First Republic, Napoleon Bonaparte and Daniel O'Connell.


title: Jacobitism

text: In England and Wales, Jacobitism was often associated with the Tories, many of whom supported James's right to the throne during the Exclusion Crisis. Tory ideology implied that neither "time nor statute law [...] could ameliorate the sin of usurpation", while shared Tory and Jacobite themes of divine right and sacred kingship may have provided an alternative to Whig concepts of "liberty and property". A minority of academics, including Eveline Cruickshanks, have argued that until the late 1750s, the Tories were a crypto-Jacobite party, others that Jacobitism was a "limb of Toryism". However, the supremacy of the Church of England was also central to Tory ideology and James lost their support when his policies seemed to threaten that primacy. The Act of Settlement 1701 excluding Catholics from the English throne was passed by a Tory administration; for the vast majority, Stuart Catholicism was an insuperable barrier to active support, while the Tory doctrine of non-resistance also discouraged them from supporting the exiles against a reigning monarch.


title: Jacobitism

text: For most of the period from 1690 to 1714, Parliament was either controlled by the Tories, or evenly split with the Whigs; when George I succeeded Anne, most hoped to reconcile with the new regime. The Earl of Mar, who led the 1715 rising, observed "Jacobitisme, which they used to brand the Tories with, is now I presum out of doors". However, George blamed the 1710 to 1714 Tory government for the Peace of Utrecht, which he viewed as damaging to his home state of Hanover. His isolation of former Tory ministers like Lord Bolingbroke and the Earl of Mar drove them first into opposition, then exile. Their exclusion from power between 1714 and 1742 led many Tories to remain in contact with the Jacobite court, which they saw as a potential tool for changing or pressuring the existing government.


title: Jacobitism

text: In 1715, there were co-ordinated celebrations on 29 May, Restoration Day, and 10 June, James Stuart's birthday, especially in Tory-dominated towns like Bristol, Oxford, Manchester and Norwich, although they remained quiet in the 1715 Rising. In the 1730s, many 'Jacobite' demonstrations in Wales and elsewhere were driven by local tensions, especially hostility to Methodism, and featured attacks on Nonconformist chapels. Most English participants in 1715 came from traditionally Catholic areas in the Northwest, like Lancashire. By 1720, there were fewer than 115,000 in England and Wales, and most remained loyal in 1745, including the Duke of Norfolk, head of the English Catholic community, sentenced to death for his role in 1715 but pardoned. Even so, sympathies were complex; Norfolk's agent Andrew Blood joined the Manchester Regiment, and he later employed another ex-officer, John Sanderson, as his master of horse. English Catholics continued to provide the exiles with financial support well into the 1770s.


title: Jacobitism

text: In 1689, around 2% of clergy in the Church of England refused to take the oath of allegiance to William and Mary; one list identifies a total of 584 clergy, schoolmasters and university dons as Non Jurors. This almost certainly understates their numbers, since many sympathisers remained within the Church of England, but Non Jurors were disproportionately represented in Jacobite risings and riots, and provided many "martyrs". By the late 1720s, arguments over doctrine and the death of its originators reduced the church to a handful of scattered congregations, but several of those executed in 1745 came from Manchester, the last significant assembly in England.


title: Jacobitism

text: Quaker leader William Penn was a prominent non-conformist supporter of James, although this was based on their personal relationship and did not survive his deposition. Another element in English Jacobitism was a handful of disaffected radicals, for whom the exiled Stuarts provided a potential alternative to the Whig establishment. An example was John Matthews, a Jacobite printer executed in 1719; his pamphlet "Vox Populi vox Dei" emphasised the Lockean theory of the social contract, a doctrine very few Tories of the period would have supported.


title: Jacobitism

text: Scottish Jacobitism had wider and more extensive roots than in England. 20,000 Scots fought for the Jacobites in 1715, compared to 11,000 who joined the government army, and were the majority of the 9,000 to 14,000 who served in 1745. One reason was the persistence of feudalism in parts of rural Scotland, where tenants could be compelled to provide their landlords with military service. Many of the Highland clansmen who were a feature of Jacobite armies were raised this way: in all three major risings, the bulk of the rank and file were supplied by a small number of north-western clans whose leaders joined the rebellion.


title: Jacobitism

text: Despite this, many Jacobites were Protestant Lowlanders, rather than the Catholic, Gaelic-speaking Highlanders of legend. By 1745, fewer than 1% of Scots were Catholic, restricted to the far north-west and a few noble families. The majority of the rank and file, as well as many Jacobite leaders, belonged to Protestant Episcopalian congregations. Throughout the 17th century, the close connection between Scottish politics and religion meant changes of regime were accompanied by the losers being expelled from the kirk. In 1690, over 200 clergy lost their positions, mostly in Aberdeenshire and Banffshire, a strongly Episcopalian area since the 1620s. In 1745, around 25% of Jacobite recruits came from this part of the country.


title: Jacobitism

text: Episcopalianism was popular among social conservatives, as it emphasised indefeasible hereditary right, absolute obedience, and implied deposition of the senior Stuart line was a breach of natural order. The church continued to offer prayers for the Stuarts until 1788, while many refused to swear allegiance to the Hanoverians in 1714. However, even in 1690, a substantial minority accommodated to the new regime, a number that increased significantly after the establishment of the Scottish Episcopal Church in 1712.


title: Jacobitism

text: Episcopalian ministers, such as Professor James Garden of Aberdeen, presented the 1707 Union as one in a series of disasters to befall Scotland, provoked by "the sins [...] of rebellion, injustice, oppression, schism and perjury". Opposition was boosted by measures imposed by the post-1707 Parliament of Great Britain, including the Treason Act 1708, the 1711 ruling that barred Scots peers with English or British peerages from their seats in the House of Lords, and tax increases. Despite their own preferences, the Stuarts tried to appeal to this group; in 1745, Charles issued declarations dissolving the "pretended Union", despite concerns this would alienate his English supporters.


title: Jacobitism

text: However, opposition to post-Union legislation was not restricted to Jacobites. Many Presbyterians opposed the establishment of the Episcopal Church in 1712 and other measures of indulgence, while the worst tax riots took place in Glasgow, a town noted for its antipathy to the Stuarts. As in England, some objected less to the Union than the Hanoverian connection; Lord George Murray, a senior Jacobite commander in 1745, was a Unionist who repeatedly disagreed with Charles, but opposed "wars [...] on account of the Electors of Hanover".


title: Jacobitism

text: While Jacobite agents continued in their attempts to recruit the disaffected, the most committed Jacobites were often linked by relatively small family networks, particularly in Scotland; Jacobite activities in areas like Perthshire and Aberdeenshire centred on a limited number of influential families heavily involved in 1715 and 1745.


title: Jacobitism

text: Some of the most powerful landowning families preserved their establishment loyalties, but maintained traditions of Stuart allegiance by permitting younger sons to become involved in active Jacobitism; in 1745, Lewis Gordon was widely believed to be a proxy for his brother, the Duke of Gordon. Many Jacobite leaders were closely linked to each other and the exile community by marriage or blood. This has led some historians, notably Bruce Lenman, to characterise the Jacobite risings as French-backed coup attempts by a small network drawn from the elite, though this view is not universally accepted.


title: Jacobitism

text: Family traditions of Jacobite sympathy were reinforced through objects such as inscribed glassware or rings with hidden symbols, although many of those that survive are in fact 19th century neo-Jacobite creations. Other family heirlooms contained reference to executed Jacobite martyrs, for which the movement preserved an unusual level of veneration. Tartan cloth, widely adopted by the Jacobite army in 1745, was used in portraiture as a symbol of Stuart sympathies, even before the Rising. Outside elite social circles, the Jacobite community circulated propaganda and symbolic objects through a network of clubs, print-sellers and pedlars, aimed at the provincial gentry and middling sort. In 1745, Prince Charles ordered commemorative medals and miniature pictures for clandestine distribution.


title: Jacobitism

text: Among the more visible elements of the Jacobite community were drinking clubs established in the early 18th century, such as the Scottish Bucks Club or the "Cycle of the White Rose", led by Welsh Tory Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn. Others included the "Sea Serjeants", largely composed of South Wales gentry or the "Independent Electors of Westminster" led by the Glamorganshire lawyer David Morgan, executed for his role in 1745. Other than Morgan, the vast majority of their members took no part in the 1745 Rising; Charles later suggested he "will do for the Welsh Jacobites what they did for me. I will drink their health".


title: Jacobitism

text: Oak Apple Day on 29 May commemorated Charles II and was an occasion for displays of Stuart sympathy, as was "White Rose Day", the Old Pretender's birthday on 10 June. Symbols were commonly employed by Jacobites, since they could not be prosecuted for their use, the most common being the White rose of York, adopted after 1688 for reasons now unclear. Various origins have been suggested, including its use as an ancient Scottish royal device, its association with James II as Duke of York, or Charles I being styled as the "White King". Jacobite military units often used plain white standards or cockades, while green ribbons were another recognised Stuart symbol despite their association with the Whig Green Ribbon Club.


title: Jacobitism

text: Despite being greeted as a hero on his return to Paris, Charles' reception behind the scenes was more muted. D’Éguilles, unofficial French envoy to the Jacobites, had a low opinion of him and other senior Jacobites, describing Lochgarry as "a bandit", and suggesting George Murray was a British spy. For their part, the Scots were disillusioned by lack of meaningful English or French support, despite constant assurances of both. Events also highlighted the reality that a low level, ongoing insurgency was far more cost-effective for the French than a restoration, a form of warfare potentially devastating to the local populace. By exposing the divergence between Scottish, French and Stuart objectives, as well as the lack of support in England, the 1745 Rising ended Jacobitism as a viable political alternative in England and Scotland.


title: Jacobitism

text: The British authorities enacted a series of measures designed to prevent the Scottish Highlands being used for another rising. New forts were built, the military road network finally completed and William Roy made the first comprehensive survey of the Highlands. Much of the power held by the Highland chiefs derived from their ability to require military service from their clansmen and even before 1745 the clan system had been under severe stress due to changing economic conditions; the Heritable Jurisdictions Act removed such feudal controls by Highland chiefs. This was far more significant than the better-known Act of Proscription which outlawed Highland dress unless worn in military service: its impact is debated and the law was repealed in 1782.


title: Jacobitism

text: As early as 1745, the French were struggling with the costs of the War of the Austrian Succession, and in June 1746, they began peace negotiations with Britain at Breda. Victories in Flanders in 1747 and 1748 actually worsened their position by drawing in the previously neutral Dutch Republic, whose shipping they relied on to avoid the British naval blockade. By 1748, food shortages among the French population made peace a matter of urgency, but the British refused to sign the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle while Charles remained in France. After he ignored requests to leave, the French lost patience; in December 1748, he was briefly jailed before being deported.


title: Jacobitism

text: In June 1747, his brother Henry became a Catholic priest; since Charles had no legitimate heir, this was seen as tacit acceptance by their father the Jacobite cause was finished. Charles continued to explore options for a rising in England, including his conversion to Anglicanism, a proposal that had outraged his father James when previously suggested. He "secretly" visited London in 1750 to meet supporters, and was inducted into the Non Juror church. However, the decline of Jacobitism is demonstrated by the fact the government and George II were well aware of his presence and did nothing to intervene. The English Jacobites made it clear they would do nothing without foreign backing, which despite Charles's overtures to Frederick II of Prussia seemed unlikely.


title: Jacobitism

text: A plot to capture or assassinate George II, headed by Alexander Murray of Elibank, was betrayed to the government by Alastair Ruadh MacDonnell, or "Pickle the Spy", but not before Charles had sent two exiles as agents. One was Archibald Cameron, responsible for recruiting the Cameron regiment in 1745, who was allegedly betrayed by his own clansmen and executed on 7 June 1753. In a 1754 dispute with the English conspirators, a drunken and increasingly desperate Charles threatened to publish their names for having "betrayed" him; most remaining English sympathisers now left the cause.


title: Jacobitism

text: During the Seven Years' War in 1759, Charles met Choiseul, then Chief minister of France to discuss another invasion, but Choiseul dismissed him as "incapacitated by drink". The Jacobite cause was abandoned by the French, while British supporters stopped providing funds; Charles, who had returned to Catholicism, now relied on the Papacy to fund his lifestyle. However, with the death of Charles’s father in 1766, the Hanoverians received the Pope’s "de facto" recognition. Despite Henry's urgings, Clement XIII refused to recognise his brother as Charles III; Charles died of a stroke in Rome in January 1788, a disappointed and embittered man.


title: Jacobitism

text: Following Charles’s death, Scottish Catholics swore allegiance to the House of Hanover, and resolved two years later to pray for King George by name. The Stuart claim passed to Henry, now a Cardinal, who styled himself King Henry IX of England. After falling into financial difficulty during the French Revolution, he was granted a stipend by George III. However, his refusal to renounce his claim to be ‘Henry IX’ prevented a full reconciliation with the House of Hanover.


title: Jacobitism

text: The next serious suggestion of restoring a Stuart Jacobite Pretender to one of their former thrones, came from an unexpected source, during the Irish Rebellion of 1798. Despite their general anti-clericalism and hosility to the Bourbon monarchy, the French Directory suggested to the United Irishmen in 1798 restoring the Jacobite Pretender, Henry Benedict Stuart, as Henry IX, King of the Irish. This was on account of General Jean Joseph Amable Humbert landing a force in County Mayo for the rebellion and realising the local population were devoutly Catholic (a significant number of Irish priests supported the Rising and had met with Humbert, although Humbert's Army had been veterans of the anti-clerical campaign in Italy). The French Directory hoped this option would allow the creation of a stable French client state in Ireland, however, Wolfe Tone, the Protestant republican leader, scoffed at the suggestion and it was quashed, with a short-lived Irish Republic proclaimed instead.


title: Jacobitism

text: Following the death of Henry in 1807, the Jacobite claims passed to those excluded by the Act of Settlement: initially to the House of Savoy (1807–1840), then to the Modenese branch of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine (1840–1919), and finally to the House of Wittelsbach (1919–present). Franz, Duke of Bavaria is the current Jacobite heir. Neither he nor any of his predecessors since 1807 have pursued their claim. Henry, Charles and James are memorialised in the Monument to the Royal Stuarts in the Vatican.


title: Jacobitism

text: Traditional Whig historiography viewed Jacobitism as marginal to the progression towards present-day Parliamentary democracy, taking the view that as it was defeated, it could never have won. Representing "pre-industrial paternalism" and "mystical loyalism" against forward-thinking individualism, this conception of Jacobitism was reinforced by Macaulay's stereotype of the typical "Tory-Jacobite squire" as a "bigoted, ignorant, drunken philistine".


title: Jacobitism

text: More recent analyses, such as that of J. C. D. Clark, suggest that Jacobitism can instead be regarded as part of a "deep vein of social and political conservatism running throughout British history", arguing that the Whig settlement was not as stable as has been depicted. Further interest in Jacobite studies has been prompted by a reassessment of the nationalist aspirations of Scots Jacobites in particular, emphasising its place as part of an ongoing political idea.


title: Jacobitism

text: As the political danger represented by Jacobitism receded, a nostalgic and sentimental view of the movement appeared, particularly with respect to the final 1745 rebellion. Relics and mementoes of 1745 were preserved and Charles himself became celebrated in "increasingly emotional and sentimental language". The publication in the 1830s of parts of "The Lyon in Mourning" by Episcopalian bishop Robert Forbes (1708–1775), a collection of source material and interviews with Jacobite participants in the 1745 rising, reinforced this memorialising tendency.


title: Jacobitism

text: 19th century historiography often presented the Scots Jacobites as driven by a romantic attachment to the House of Stuart, rather than as having a wide range of individual motivations. This suited a Victorian depiction of Highlanders as a "martial race", distinguished by a tradition of a "misplaced loyalism" since transferred to the British crown. The participation of Lowland and north-eastern gentry in the movement was less emphasised, while the Irish Jacobites were presented as a largely negative influence on Charles in 1745.


title: Jacobitism

text: Walter Scott, author of "Waverley", a story of the 1745 rebellion, combined romantic, nostalgic Jacobitism with an appreciation of the practical benefits of Union. In 1822 he arranged a pageantry of reinvented Scottish traditions for the visit of King George IV to Scotland when George IV visited Edinburgh as a successor to his distant relative Charles Stuart. The tartan pageantry was immensely popular, and Highland clothing, previously associated with rebellion and disorder became Scotland's National Dress. 1824 saw the restoration of some Jacobite titles and 1829 Catholic emancipation; with political Jacobitism now safely confined to an "earlier era", the hitherto largely ignored site of the final Jacobite defeat at Culloden began to be celebrated.


title: Jacobitism

text: Many Jacobite folk songs emerged in Scotland in this period; a number of examples were collected by Scott's colleague James Hogg in his "Jacobite Reliques", including several he likely composed himself. Nineteenth century Scots poets such as Alicia Spottiswoode and Carolina Nairne, Lady Nairne (whose "Bonnie Charlie" remains popular) added further examples. Relatively few of the surviving songs, however, actually date from the time of the risings; one of the best known is the Irish song "Mo Ghile Mear", which although a more recent composition is based on the contemporary lyric "Buan ar Buairt Gach Ló" by Seán Clárach Mac Domhnaill.


title: Jacobitism

text: There was a brief revival of political Jacobitism in the late 1880s and into the 1890s. A number of Jacobite clubs and societies were formed, starting with the Order of the White Rose founded by Bertram Ashburnham in 1886. In 1890, Herbert Vivian and Ruaraidh Erskine co-founded a weekly newspaper, "The Whirlwind", that espoused a Jacobite political view. Vivian, Erskine and Melville Henry Massue formed the Legitimist Jacobite League of Great Britain and Ireland in 1891, which lasted for several years. Vivian went on to stand for Parliament four times on a Jacobite platform – though he failed to be elected each time. The revival largely came to an end with the First World War, and the various societies of the time are now represented by the Royal Stuart Society.


title: Jacobitism

text: Jacobitism has been a popular subject for historical novels, and for speculative and humorous fiction.


title: Jacobitism

text: Since Henry's death, none of the Jacobite heirs have claimed the English or Scottish thrones. Franz, Duke of Bavaria (born 1933), a direct descendant of Charles I, is the current legitimate heir of the house of Stuart. It has been suggested that a repeal of the Act of Settlement 1701 could allow him to claim the throne, although he has expressed no interest in doing so.


title: Power Book IV: Force

text: Power Book IV: Force is an American crime drama television series created by Robert Munic that premiered on February 6, 2022, on Starz. The series is a sequel and third spin-off to "Power" created by Courtney A. Kemp. In March 2022, the series was renewed for a second season.


title: Power Book IV: Force

text: In August 2020, it was announced that the series had been given a greenlight with a 10-episode series order to focus on Joseph Sikora’s character of Tommy Egan. At that time Robert Munic was announced to serve as showrunner on the series and executive produce with Courtney A. Kemp and Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson. In February 2021, eight additional cast members were added as series regulars: Lili Simmons, Gabrielle Ryan, Isaac Keys, Shane Harper, Kris D. Lofton, Anthony Fleming III, Lucien Cambric and Tommy Flanagan. In May 2021, it was announced that Jeremih would be joining the cast in a recurring role. In July 2021, it was announced that Robert Munic was leaving as showrunner, citing creative differences. Courtney A. Kemp, who oversees all the Power series, would be taking over. On March 9, 2022, Starz renewed the series for a second season with Gary Lennon taking over as the new showrunner, Munic having exited.


title: Shaun of the Dead

text: Shaun of the Dead is a 2004 zombie comedy film directed by Edgar Wright and written by Wright and Simon Pegg. Pegg stars as Shaun, a downtrodden salesman in London who is caught in a zombie apocalypse with his friend Ed (Nick Frost). The film co-stars Kate Ashfield, Lucy Davis, Dylan Moran, Bill Nighy, and Penelope Wilton. It is the first installment in the "Three Flavours Cornetto" trilogy, followed by "Hot Fuzz" (2007) and "The World's End" (2013).


title: Shaun of the Dead

text: "Shaun of the Dead" developed from ideas Pegg and Wright used for their television series "Spaced", particularly an episode where Pegg's slacker character hallucinates a zombie invasion. The film references the "Dead" films directed by George A. Romero. Principal photography took place across London and at Ealing Studios between May and June 2003.


title: Shaun of the Dead

text: The film premiered in London on 29 March 2004 and was theatrically released in the United Kingdom on 9 April 2004 and in the United States on 24 September. It was met with acclaim and commercial success, grossing $30 million worldwide on a budget of $6.1 million and receiving two nominations at the British Academy Film Awards. It was ranked third on the Channel 4 list of the 50 Greatest Comedy Films and quickly acquired a cult following. In film studies, the film is seen as a product of post-9/11 anxiety, as well as a model for transnational comedy. The spread of zombiism in the film has been used as a modelling example for disease control.


title: Shaun of the Dead

text: In Crouch End, London, 29-year-old electronics salesman Shaun has no direction in his life. He is disrespected by his colleagues, does not get along with his stepfather, Philip, and is dumped by his girlfriend, Liz, after he fails to make decent plans for a date to celebrate their three-year anniversary. Heartbroken, Shaun gets drunk with Ed, his slacker and weed-dealing best friend, at their favourite pub, the Winchester. At home, Shaun and Ed's flatmate, Pete, complains of a bite wound from a mugger and berates Shaun into getting his life together.


title: Shaun of the Dead

text: By morning, a zombie apocalypse has overwhelmed London. Shaun and Ed are slow to notice until they encounter two zombies in their garden, whom they beat to death with a shovel and cricket bat (after several failed attempts using household implements and Shaun's record collection). They devise a plan to rescue Liz and Barbara, Shaun's mother, and then wait out the crisis in the Winchester. They escape from a now-zombified Pete in Pete's car and pick up Philip, who has been bitten, and Barbara. After Ed deliberately crashes Pete's car, they use Philip's Jaguar to pick up Liz and her flatmates, David and Dianne. Philip reconciles with Shaun before Philip becomes a zombie.


title: Shaun of the Dead

text: Forced to abandon the car and their weapons, the group sneak through their London neighbourhood, running into a group led by Shaun's friend, Yvonne. Shaun defends Barbara from a zombie, which he is forced to impale with a swingball pole. After imitating zombies to get to the Winchester through a horde, Shaun and Ed argue after the latter answers his mobile phone, thus attracting the zombies' attention. After David panickedly breaks a window to gain access to the Winchester, Shaun is forced to lure them away using himself as bait. After the group takes refuge inside the Winchester, Shaun discovers that the zombies followed him, and Ed unwittingly attracts them by playing on the pub's fruit machine. Whilst fighting the zombified landlord, Shaun discovers that the Winchester rifle above the bar is functional. Barbara reveals she was bitten, and dies after giving Liz and Shaun's relationship her approval. David attempts to shoot Barbara, but Shaun stops him, causing the group to argue. Shaun accuses David of hating him and being in love with Liz, which Dianne admits. Shaun, distraught, is forced to shoot Barbara when she becomes a zombie. Further fighting ensues after David states that Shaun was right to shoot Barbara.


title: Shaun of the Dead

text: Zombies break into the pub and devour David. Dianne rushes into the horde brandishing David's detached leg, allowing it to enter. The zombified Pete appears and bites Ed, and Shaun shoots and kills Pete. Shaun, Liz, and Ed take cover behind the bar, which Shaun sets ablaze; the shells left on the bar ignite, killing several zombies by chance. The three take refuge in the cellar. Realising they only have two bullets left, Shaun and Liz contemplate suicide while Ed elects to be devoured by the zombies. Shaun discovers a keg lift that opens out onto the street, and Ed volunteers to stay with the rifle as the zombies break in. The British Army arrive with Yvonne in tow, gun down the horde and take Shaun and Liz to safety.


title: Shaun of the Dead

text: Six months later, civilisation has returned to normal, and surviving zombies are used as cheap labour and entertainment. Liz has moved in with Shaun, and Shaun keeps the zombified Ed tethered in his shed, where they play video games together.


title: Shaun of the Dead

text: "Shaun of the Dead" was developed from an episode of Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright's sitcom "Spaced". The episode, "Art", which was written by Pegg with Jessica Stevenson and directed by Wright, sees Pegg's character under the influence of amphetamine and playing the video game "Resident Evil 2", hallucinating that he is fighting off a zombie invasion.


title: Shaun of the Dead

text: With a mutual appreciation for George A. Romero's "Dead" trilogy of zombie films, Pegg and Wright decided to write their own zombie film. They conceived it in late 1999 and pitched it to Film4, who took it on until their production budget was cut back. Wright was still invested in production and refused to take television directing jobs until "Shaun of the Dead" was made, which left him in some debt for a while. Other companies passed on it, according to Wright, "Because they weren't sure what the tone was and said it wasn't all that scary and not that funny. They didn't get it." After eighteen months, Working Title Films picked it up, which Wright felt was ironic as the film mocks the classic British rom-coms that Working Title makes. The film was announced at Cannes Film Festival in 2002.


title: Shaun of the Dead

text: Wright said both that he suggested the film when in a cab with Pegg after the excitement of filming the zombie scene in "Spaced", and while watching a horror film with both Pegg and Nick Frost. He began developing it in earnest after playing "Resident Evil" late one night himself, and going out in the early hours of the morning wondering what a British person's reaction to the zombie apocalypse would be. He considered the lack of firearms typical of American zombie movies, and his experience of the dazed early-morning walk to the shop turned into a scene in the film where Shaun does the same thing. Another influence from Wright's life came from how he missed the 2001 foot-and-mouth epidemic by simply not having paid attention to the news for a fortnight, turning his television on one day to see cattle being burnt, leaving him confused. Because of this, he said "it's plausible that the world could be ending and these two guys could be the last to know" as they also skip over the news on television in the film. The gag about Shaun and Ed spending all their time at the Winchester also comes from the actors' lives, as Pegg and Frost "always used to go to the same bar all the time", according to Wright, who had been trying to convince them not to.


title: Shaun of the Dead

text: The screenplay was written by Wright and Pegg in eight weeks. They were inspired by films including "Night of the Living Dead" (1968) and "Dawn of the Dead" (1978), as well as "Raising Arizona" (1987), "Back to the Future" (1985), "Braindead" (1992) and "The Birds" (1963). The actors met three weeks before filming began for read-throughs, where they also made changes to the script. According to Pegg, the script has a set structure, with certain lines and actions being repeated throughout the film, making improvisation harder. Only two scenes were improvised: when Ed begins to describe the people at the pub and when Shaun offers their associates some peanuts. Pegg said that the screenplay played well into being an actor in the film because he "could write to [his] own strengths" and create his own wish fulfilment.


title: Shaun of the Dead

text: The film's cast features a number of British comedians, comic actors, and sitcom stars, most prominently from "Spaced", "Black Books" and "The Office", and co-stars other actors from these same shows. Cast members from them include Pegg, Frost, Stevenson and Peter Serafinowicz. Frost met Pegg when he was working as a waiter, and was brought onto "Spaced" despite a lack of acting experience; Frost explained that Shaun and Ed have a dynamic similar to that of Simon and himself in real life, as they had been living together for years.


title: Shaun of the Dead

text: The production had originally approached Helen Mirren to play the part of Shaun's mother Barbara, which she turned down with a note that she would rather play other, funnier, characters. The role of Barbara went to Penelope Wilton. She was asked to take the role because of her work in the 1984 sitcom "Ever Decreasing Circles". Shaun's stepfather is played by Bill Nighy, who accepted the role after Wright sent him an early script to read.


title: Shaun of the Dead

text: Secondary roles and cameos include Dylan Moran, Martin Freeman, Tamsin Greig, Julia Deakin and Reece Shearsmith. The voices of Mark Gatiss and Julia Davis can be heard as radio news presenters; Trisha Goddard also makes a cameo appearance, hosting two fictionalised episodes of her real-life talk show "Trisha". Many other comics and comic actors appear in cameos as zombies, including Rob Brydon, Paul Putner, Pamela Kempthorne, Joe Cornish, Antonia Campbell-Hughes, Mark Donovan and Michael Smiley. Coldplay members Chris Martin and Jonny Buckland also have cameo roles in the film; Martin is a close friend of Pegg, who is the godfather of Martin's daughter, and also contributed to the soundtrack by guest singing the cover of Buzzcocks' "Everybody's Happy Nowadays" with Ash. He does not appear as a zombie, but as himself in a charity drive.


title: Shaun of the Dead

text: Zombie extras were recruited from "Spaced" fan communities. Wright said in 2020 that "[the] zombies spent a week cooped up on set. They had to stand outside The Winchester, the pub where our heroes take refuge, banging on the windows and not doing much else really. When we eventually involved them properly, they had this electric energy: a pure, crazed hysteria". Originally, there were 40 stunt performers hired to be the zombies, but the production realised that they would need a lot more to fill the set pieces. So many fans responded to the online call that auditions to select zombies were set up. There were 150 zombie extras until local children saw the zombie make-up and wanted to be involved, leading to another 50 child zombies being added.


title: Shaun of the Dead

text: The film was shot over nine weeks between May and July 2003. Wright uses in-camera transitions, typical to his style, to enable powerful visual storytelling. Pegg also commented on the use of a magical realism style, which he says is part of Wright's direction.


title: Shaun of the Dead

text: The production was filmed in London, on location and at Ealing Studios, and involved production companies Working Title and StudioCanal. Many exterior shots were filmed in and around the North London areas of Crouch End, Highgate, Finsbury Park and East Finchley. The electrical appliance shop that Shaun works at is a real shop located in North Finchley. The scenes filmed in and around the Winchester Tavern pub were shot at the Duke of Albany pub in New Cross, South London. A three-story Victorian pub, it was turned into flats in 2008.


title: Shaun of the Dead

text: The film's score by Pete Woodhead and Daniel Mudford is a pastiche of Italian zombie film soundtracks by artists like Goblin and Fabio Frizzi. It also uses many musical cues from the original "Dawn of the Dead" that were originally taken by George A. Romero from the De Wolfe production music library. A friend of the assistant editor on the film had been compiling music library tracks from zombie films, making finding some music for the film much easier. Before production began on the film, Wright and Pegg had created a mixtape of songs they wanted to use. The Goblin music, though, was used as a temp track by Wright in editing; he liked the feel of it so much they decided to get the clearance to use it.


title: Shaun of the Dead

text: Bobby Olivier of "Billboard" attributes the initial rebirth of Queen's "Don't Stop Me Now" to its appearance in the film, which "introduced it to a new generation of listeners", saying: "Perhaps the most famous scene from "Shaun of the Dead" features "Don't Stop Me Now" which blares from a pub jukebox while stars Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and Kate Ashfield bash a zombie with pool cues to the song's hurtling beat". The moment had been Wright's idea, as he loves Queen and "had the idea of playing Don't Stop Me Now – one of the most positive, exciting, happy tunes ever – over a scene of extreme violence". Pegg explained that the fight in the pub was choreographed to the song even before it had been cleared to be used in the film, so they wrote to Brian May and begged to use it.


title: Shaun of the Dead

text: The other choreographed sequence, near the start of the film, used different music to that which it had been set to. The original was a Cornelius song, and had been the track written in for the scene from the screenplay. Wright then heard the song used in the film, by I Monster, when editing, and felt that it worked better. The tempo of both songs is the same, so the new song fit the original choreography.


title: Shaun of the Dead

text: The film was distributed by United International Pictures (UIP) in the United Kingdom (UK) and Universal Pictures in the United States (US). UIP created a heavy targeted marketing strategy, including hiring actors to play zombies and dropping them around London to create disruption shortly before the film's release. This part of the campaign was run by ZenithOptimedia; their head said that "It has to be the most powerful way to communicate what "Shaun of the Dead" is all about".


title: Shaun of the Dead

text: Beyond traditional print advertising, posters were also placed in the London Underground. As the poster shows Shaun crammed tightly against windows surrounded by zombies, the company chose to buy up poster spaces that "would give the impression to anyone walking through the tunnels between platforms that the zombie carriages were on the tracks"; this is a tactic that UIP had not done before, but the creative angle of the posters' positioning naturally lent itself to such a move. A similar tactic was used with digital posters for the film at an international football match between England and Sweden; less-restrictive advertising laws in Sweden, where the game was held, meant that UIP had "hoardings incorporating flailing zombie-like arms", which would not have been permitted in England.


title: Shaun of the Dead

text: In the UK, "Shaun of the Dead" took £1.6 million at 367 cinemas on its opening weekend (9–11 April 2004) and netted £6.4 million by mid-May. It was second at the box office, following "50 First Dates" with £1.65 million. In its opening weekend in the US, "Shaun of the Dead" earned US$3.3 million, taking seventh place at the box office despite a limited release to 607 theatres. As of June 2020, the film has earned US$30,076,102 worldwide in box office receipts since its release. The film was released only two weeks after Zack Snyder's 2004 remake "Dawn of the Dead". Both are internationally distributed by Universal Pictures, with the company only taking on "Shaun of the Dead" after setting the condition it be released after the remake.


title: Shaun of the Dead

text: The film was released on VHS and DVD shortly after its theatrical run in the US, with a VHS and DVD release on 6 September 2004 in the UK and around December 2004 in the US, in widescreen-only for both formats. Features included several audio commentaries, EPK featurettes about the film's production, pre-production video diaries and concept videos, photo galleries, bloopers, and more. The film also saw release on the HD DVD format in 2007, with a Blu-ray Disc release following in 2009.


title: Shaun of the Dead

text: The Blu-ray release had high-definition visuals and a 5.1 surround sound audio mix. Special features include four audio commentaries, the DVD features, and U-Control features giving access to "storyboards, missing bits, and of course the Zomb-O-Meter trivia track".


title: Shaun of the Dead

text: Pegg and Wright scripted a one-off tie-in comic strip for the British comic magazine "2000AD" titled "There's Something About Mary". Set the day before the zombie outbreak, the strip follows and expands on the character of Mary, who appears briefly in the introductory credits and is the first zombie whom Shaun and Ed are aware of; the strip details how she became a zombie. The strip was made available on the DVD release of "Shaun", along with two other strips that wrapped up "plot holes" in the film, like how Dianne escaped and survived the Winchester incident, and Ed's fate after taking refuge in the pub's basement. The comics, which feature Pegg and Wright's voices on the DVD and are in black and white, were drawn by Oscar Wright, a graphic artist and Edgar Wright's brother. In 2005, IDW Publishing released a four-issue adaptation written by Chris Ryall (with input from Edgar Wright & Simon Pegg) and drawn by Zack Howard. The comic also contains scenes that were left out of the movie.


title: Shaun of the Dead

text: In 2006, the National Entertainment Collectibles Association announced that it would be producing action figures based on the film. Upper Deck Entertainment released a card for the popular "World of Warcraft TCG" in 2007, an ally named "Shawn of the Dead", with the power of bringing back allies from the enemy graveyard. Pegg and Frost reprised their roles as Shaun and Ed for a public service announcement video, "The Plan", released on 19 March 2020 on YouTube. Shaun and Ed share advice about the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, with Shaun urging Ed to follow National Health Service guidelines, stay home, and avoid the pub.


title: Shaun of the Dead

text: The film contains many references to Romero's films "Night of the Living Dead", "Dawn of the Dead", and "Day of the Dead", with "Dawn" in particular being referenced. The name "Shaun of the Dead" was intended to be a pun on "Dawn of the Dead." A hand-in-mouth theoretical sequel called "From Dusk Till Shaun" was discussed by Wright and Pegg as "pub talk", referencing "From Dusk till Dawn", as was a parallel sequel starring Stevenson called "Yvonne of the Dead". A poster was made for "From Dusk Till Shaun" to feature in the alternate universe Times Square in the 2018 animated Sony Pictures Marvel Comics movie ""; a co-director of this film, Rodney Rothman, had reached out to Wright to ask for a movie suggestion that he could have theoretically made in the alternate universe.


title: Shaun of the Dead

text: Other zombie film references include one to "28 Days Later", made during the ending scene when Shaun and Liz are watching television and a news report mentions the idea of "raging infected monkeys" – in "28 Days Later" the rage virus was started by monkeys in a laboratory – and one to Italian gore director Lucio Fulci with the restaurant called "Fulci's". The film was the first of the "Three Flavours Cornetto" trilogy, in which each film makes a reference to a different flavour of Cornetto ice cream. "Shaun of the Dead" features red strawberry-flavoured ice cream, signifying blood. The Cornetto was included as Ed's hangover cure because it is Wright's actual hangover cure.


title: Shaun of the Dead

text: Wright and Pegg had contacted various artists to ask for use of their records in the famed scene where Shaun and Ed throw LPs at a zombie to defend themselves. While some artists never got back, Wright said that "Sade was the coolest. She said we could trash "Diamond Life" without hesitation". Wright would later include a Sade song in the soundtrack of his 2010 film "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" – the Beachwood Sparks version of "By Your Side". It was on an original list of songs for the "Scott Pilgrim" graphic novel, and Wright joked that he owed Sade "some publishing money" after destroying the album in "Shaun of the Dead". Of the moment, Pegg said that they "love using Sade as a weapon", noting that she was one of only two artists who gave permission to show cover art in the scene (the other being New Order).


title: Shaun of the Dead

text: Besides the short "The Plan" made during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, the film saw renewed interest in this time as an Internet meme. It began trending on Twitter because the film's poster, showing zombies pressed up against door windows, bears a striking resemblance to a photojournalist's image of protesters in Ohio at the Statehouse demanding lockdown be lifted. The situation was also described as "reminiscent of some of the scenes towards the end of the movie". The photojournalist was Joshua A. Bickel, who said that he "thought the windows and door were an interesting compositional element"; "Dawn of the Dead" prosthetist Tom Savini said it reminds him of "Shaun of the Dead" because both use the pressed-up-against-glass horror trope.


title: Shaun of the Dead

text: The film also has tribute with a zombie hand sculpture at the Hakone Museum in Japan, where it is a cult hit; it did not see a theatrical release in the country until March 2019.


title: Shaun of the Dead

text: Films that have been based on or inspired by "Shaun of the Dead" include "Juan of the Dead", "Hsien of the Dead", and "Shed of the Dead".


title: Shaun of the Dead

text: Film scholar Kyle Bishop, Literature scholar and leading zombie film researcher Peter Dendle, and Sci-Fi scholar Gerry Canavan all comment on "Shaun of the Dead" as part of a large body of zombie narratives produced in the wake of 9/11. Bishop explained that the "renaissance of the subgenre reveals a connection between zombie cinema and post-9/11 cultural consciousness", because "horror films function as barometers of society's anxieties, and zombie movies represent the inescapable realities of unnatural death while presenting a grim view of the modern apocalypse". He finds that the subgenre of zombie films "can shock and terrify a population that has become numb to other horror subgenres", with Dendle similarly assessing that "the possibility of wide-scale destruction and devastation which 9/11 brought once again into the communal consciousness found a ready narrative expression in the zombie apocalypses which over thirty years had honed images of desperation subsistence and amoral survivalism to a fine edge".


title: Shaun of the Dead

text: Dirk Eitzen also examined the film in depth as an example of how comedy is made in film, particularly how interpretive humour and satire are used. For example, when Shaun slips and falls in the shop in the opening sequence, per Eitzen's explanation, it is funny on several levels. Falling is funny; not noticing the zombie apocalypse is funny; the social satire that contrasts Shaun's mindless behaviour with the mindless zombies is funny; and the self-reference to where Shaun had slipped on a curb earlier in the sequence is funny, too. Media scholar Lindsey Decker wrote on how the film created comedy through transnational generic hybridisation, taking cues from American zombie movies as well as "British comedic practices from WWII-era Ealing comedies, television two-man comedy teams and the Monty Python sketch troupe". In this use of British comedy within an American genre, it also serves as commentary on British-American relations in the film industry.