Will Zach Snyder’s Army Of The Dead be the start of a ‘Zombieverse’? The short answer is yes! The director is having quite a year. After the positive reception garnered by the ‘Snyder Cut’ of Justice League in March, his latest movie, which debuted on Netflix last week, has been similarly well-received. Over at Rotten Tomatoes, Army Of The Dead has a critics rating of 69% and an audience score of 76%. Will that reaction be enough for a ‘Zombieverse’? Well, plans are well underway with two confirmed projects and plenty of speculation on more. Let’s delve into the plans…
SPOILERS AHEAD!
Army Of The Dead – A Quick Overview
Genetically engineered zombies overrun Las Vegas, so the US government decides to quarantine the city. Casino city Mr Tanaka wants some money recovered from his vault and hires Scott Ward (Dave Bautista) to retrieve it before the government launches a nuclear bomb on the city. Ward assembles a motley crew of associates to take with him on the mission, including his daughter Kate. It is fun to guess who from the team will make it safely out and there is plenty of good action. The zombie army looks pretty cool, led by Zeus, his Queen and a zombie tiger called Valentine. The mission to get the money fails, and there are only two survivors from the squad that went in so you’d have to deem it a spectacular failure.
The Zombieverse
Army Of Thieves
The first related project announced is a prequel, focussing on master safe cracker Ludwig Dieter, played by Matthias Schwieghöfer. The screenplay for Army Of Thieves is by Army Of The Dead writer Shay Hatten and Schwieghöfer is also directing. The biggest name co-star is Nathalie Emmanuel from Game Of Thrones. Dieter was perhaps the most fun character in Army Of The Dead, with an innocence and charm about him as he entered the world of zombies. Producer Deborah Snyder told Indiewire that the movie will have an international feel and is a ‘romantic comedy heist film’. The movie will be released later in 2021.
Army Of The Dead: Lost Vegas
Army Of The Dead: Lost Vegas is an anime spin-off show taking place during the early days of the zombie outbreak. Many of the cast of the original movie will return in voice roles for the series which will flesh out Scott Ward’s origin story and detail what caused the zombie outbreak. Joe Manganiello is joining the cast as the protagonist and there are some other big names involved too, including Christian Slater and Vanessa Hudgens. It seems set for six episodes, with Zach Snyder directing two of them himself.
Will There Be A Sequel To Zack Snyder’s Army Of The Dead?
Whilst the two projects above are confirmed, and both prequels, there is no official news on a sequel as yet, though Zack Snyder has said he and co-writer Hatten have plenty of ideas and a story fleshed out.
The big intrigue of the Army Of The Dead finale centres on Vanderohe, played by Omari Hardwick. Vanderohe is shut in the vault by Dieter, and apparently that safe is nuclear bomb proof. After the blast Vanderohe strolls out of Vegas with an armful of dollars, radiation be damned, and hires a private plane to take him to Mexico. He’s having a good time until he discovers he has been bitten. This throws up some questions! What will he do now he knows that he has been bitten. Kill himself to stop the spread? Or ignore it and potentially turn and start to infect other people, starting with the population of Mexico? It is not clear how much time has passed since Vanderohe has been bitten but it is strange that he hasn’t started to turn yet when others seemed to zombify much faster.
There are a couple of other story elements that are hinted at and certainly could be explored more. Namely the fact that there were robot zombies! Were they created by aliens? Could we get a space zombie film? And there’s the time loop scenario suggested by Vanderohe. Could the team have attempted the mission multiple times already? Learning more and more each time as they get nearer and nearer the money. We’ll surely find out more in future entries in the Zombieverse!
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