For years, fans of boy bands have been faced with the difficult decision of choosing a favorite band. Backstreet Boys or NSYNC? New Kids on the Block or Color Me Badd? 98 Degrees or LFO? Now, though, fans of NSYNC and Backstreet Boys may finally have the chance to put their rivalries aside. This weekend, during Comic-Con’s San Diego stop, AJ Mclean, Joey Fatone, and Nick Carter, of boy band fame, promoted the movie Dead Seven. The SyFy channel zombie-western is being directed by Carter, who also wrote the movie, and stars, Backstreet Boys’, McLean and Carter, as well as, NSYNC’s, Joey Fatone. The team behind 2013’s Sharknado will be helping execute Carter’s vision; and while the movie has yet to be fully cast, it has been reported that McLean will play the villain’s apprentice while Carter and Fatone play the heroes. Carter describes the movie, “Think about it. Boy-banders, people from the late ‘90s, people who you love, fighting zombies in a post-apocalyptic world. Pretty crazy, right?” As for a way to bridge the generation gap between boy band lovers, Carter suggests, “Ok @NiallOfficial I know we’re from different generations but…would you like to play my brother in this zombie movie with me? #Dead7”
While news of the award winning bands’ recent decision to work together may surprise fans, it was not an unexpected jump for the trio. The guys not only insist that their rivalry is over, but that there was, in fact, never one at all. While fans assumed the two bands hated each other, it was in actuality the groups’ shared record label that stoked that fire. In a recent interview, Carter admitted that the so-called feud was “strictly the media being bored,” while Fatone stated that “We shared the same management, same label…but they would always kinda keep us away, apart, but there was actually no legitimate reason.”
Since Backstreet Boys’ formation in 1993 they have won over thirty awards and are the only boy band to have their first nine albums reach the top 10 on the Billboard 200. Fellow Orlando band NSYNC, formed only two years later and are ranked the eighth-best selling boy band in history; selling over one million copies of their sophomore album, No Strings Attached, in one day.