Why Seth Rogen Hasn’t Directed A Movie In More Than A Decade: ‘Not The Biggest Problem Anymore’
Seth Rogen has not exactly been sitting around for the past decade resting on his laurels. The man has acted in, produced, and wrote for various new TV shows, from live-action to animation, with The Studio becoming one of the buzziest Hollywood comedies of 2025, with a second season on the way. But when it comes to big-screen movies, he and longtime collaborator Evan Goldberg have been absent from the feature side since 2014, and he explained why that’s been the case.
Rogen addressed that long break with The Hollywood Reporter, while attending the Los Angeles premiere of Olivia Wilde’s stress-inducing new movie The Invite, in which he stars alongside Wilde, Penélope Cruz and Edward Norton. His reason for staying away from directing films is pretty understandable, given the last movie he and Goldberg directed together was The Interview. He said:
It has been a while. The last one we did almost started a war, so that made us maybe a little gun-shy for a little while. We eased back in through television and it seemed to go well, so we do talk about maybe, hopefully, directing a film next year actually. We’re not the biggest problem anymore.
That is a very funny line about a situation that was, at the time, not funny at all. The Interview starred Rogen and James Franco as journalists who land an interview with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, then get recruited by the CIA to assassinate him. The comedy became the center of an international incident, with the North Korean government threatening the United States over the film, and with Sony Pictures later being hit with a massive cyberattack.
Being “a little gun-shy” after such an ordeal seems fair. Most filmmakers worry about opening weekend numbers, bad reviews or studio notes, but everyone involved with this movie had to deal with it becoming a diplomatic headache and a corporate security nightmare. That is the kind of thing that might make someone look at the director’s chair and think, “Maybe non-dictator-focused television sounds nice for a while.”
And television really has been a way back in. The Superbad duo have directed multiple TV episodes since The Interview, most notably with The Studio, which gave Rogen a chance to satirize Hollywood from inside the belly of the beast. That feels like an appropriate reentry point after a movie that caused actual global fallout. A series about studio panic probably feels near-cozy in comparison.
The industry has changed quite a bit since Rogen and Goldberg’s last big-screen directorial effort in 2014. Hollywood now has plenty of problems fighting for the crown: streaming confusion, theatrical uncertainty, franchise fatigue, AI anxiety, runaway budgets and a comedy market that has become much harder to navigate. Compared with all that, two guys wanting to direct another movie sounds almost charmingly old-fashioned.
For now, the Freaks and Geeks alum is back in actor-only mode with the 2026 calendar release of The Invite, and he sounded pretty happy about that, too. He joked that it was nice to see a miserable production conversation happening nearby and realize he did not have to be part of it, leaving him free to scroll social media and talk to Edward Norton instead. Honestly, that sounds like a tiny vacation for a guy who is usually juggling several creative jobs at once. Whatever stress went into making the movie seems to have paid off, too, since the new A24 flick has a Rotten Tomatoes score high enough to leave me shook.
He also praised Wilde, who both stars in and directs The Invite, saying he found her bold as an actor and filmmaker. That probably carries extra weight from someone who knows exactly how hard it is to do both jobs at once without setting your own brain on fire.
Whether Rogen and Goldberg actually direct a new movie next year remains to be seen. But after more than a decade away from features, it sounds like the door is finally open again.
The Invite is now playing in theaters, so be sure to check your local listings for showtimes.
