Justice League director Zack Snyder’s Army of the Dead promises to bring heists and the undead together, and the embattled director has a whole expansive cinematic universe planned for the movie’s characters. After spending a decade and a half in development hell, Dawn of the Dead remake director Zack Snyder’s ambitious zombie heist movie Army of the Dead is finally arriving on streaming services in May 2021, with Netflix planning an entire string of related projects after the film's release.
The movie follows a ragtag bunch of mismatched mercenaries who are tasked with breaking into a Las Vegas casino and securing the building’s massive monetary haul—except they hadn't counted on the number of zombies swarming the area in the wake of an apocalypse contained within the walled-off perimeters of Sin City. Like Snyder’s earlier zombie movie, Army of the Dead promises to bring together action and horror in a fast-paced, gory, R-rated extravaganza that will hopefully improve upon the critically-abhorred recent Netflix heist effort Locked Down.
Back in 2004, Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead remake was, along with Trainspotting director Danny Boyle’s seminal 28 Days Later, instrumental in refiguring how zombies were represented onscreen. Gone were the shambling, lurching hordes of the iconic '70s and '80s George A. Romero movies, with the new millennium replaced by sprinting, screaming monsters that offered a more immediate and terrifying threat for viewers. Since Army of the Dead was first pitched in 2007, the zombie subgenre has enjoyed a serious boom in the late '00s and '10s. The subgenre has since somewhat died down again, with recent efforts Zombieland 2: Double Tap and The Dead Don’t Die failing to wow audiences. That said, the popularity of Snyder’s darker, scarier Justice League cut alone proves that the director has a large fanbase, so it should come as no surprise that the helmer has big plans for the extended Army of the Dead cinematic universe.
Army of the Dead
The first film from the potentially expansive, ambitious Army of the Dead cinematic universe will be Army of the Dead itself, the fast-paced thriller that chronicles the aftermath of the initial zombie outbreak, with the undead effectively quarantined in Nevada’s infamous desert city. Although the movie promises large-scale zombie action, the plot itself lasers in on the central heist team’s attempts to recover money from a casino under siege by the undead. There will reportedly be “alpha zombies” and an Area 51 origin for the outbreak that, knowing Snyder's recurring theme of duplicitous authorities, will see some shadowy Stranger Things-style government conspiracies uncovered. Meanwhile, star Dave Bautista teased a surprise actor/character appearance at the end, which will likely set up another installment of this sprawling, multi-movie franchise Snyder has planned.
Army of the Dead: Lost Vegas
An animated prequel series, the anime-style Army of the Dead: Lost Vegas will center its story about the True Blood star Joe Manganiello will star as the protagonist Rose, but don’t get too attached to his character—while he may be the series lead, it is hard to ignore the fact that this is a prequel series and Manganiello is nowhere to be found in the cast list of Army of the Dead, meaning he may end up as one of the legions of the undead by the close of the show's action.
Army of Thieves
Best known for playing Klaus Barbie in last year’s Jesse Eisenberg vehicle Resistance, it is fair to say that German actor Matthias Schweighöfer is not the most instantly recognizable name in the Army of the Dead cast list. However, the actor is likely to become a pretty sizeable star once he receives his own spin-off series, a live-action prequel show about his character, Dieter, titled Army of Thieves. Described as a ”romantic comedy heist movie,” Army of Thieves’ premise conjures up an interesting premise that could be a lot of fun thanks to star Schweighöfer playing double duty. Army of Thieves promises to be a multi-lingual series, with the emerging star not only playing Deiter but also directing the show.
What's Next for Netflix's Army of the Dead Zombie Universe?
If the Jurassic Park: Fallen Kingdom-style. The intriguing mention of an Area 51 origin for the outbreak even means that the door could be open for some form of an alien invasion taking place later in the ambitious action-horror-sci-fi franchise. In that wild scenario, the humans and zombies could team up against the alien invaders, or the humans could have two killer threats to contend with. It's wild, but weird, over-the-top genre is in these days, and anything is possible.
There are no confirmed projects that take place after Army of the Dead, but Snyder has the universe mapped out with a "zombie bible," so there can be no doubt that there are plans to go bigger and better than the undead heist-movie action of the Netflix release. Of course, the big plans Snyder has for the Army of the Dead universe will rely on the success of the movie and its two spin-offs.
