An ‘Army Of The Dead’ Prequel Is Already In Development

Netflix's Army Of The Dead, the hyperbolic zombie heist spectacle from director Zack Snyder, only released last week but the future's looking bright for the franchise.

The film's story is a little off-the-wall so strap in. It starts with a mysterious U.S. military convoy moving a shipment from Area 51 to another destination. Where that destination is doesn't matter because the truck crashes thereby springing loose the captive zombie who kills the soldiers and bites two others. The infected shuffle off to Las Vegas and the virus spreads, so the military decide to nuke the city to contain the zombies. However, a ragtag group of mercenaries are contracted to retrieve $200 million from a casino before the bombs drop. Oh, and there's a strain of the disease that allows the victims to retain their intelligence despite their transformation, and these Alpha zombies won't give up their city without a fight. The cast is stacked, with Dave Bautista as the hero Scott Ward, as well as Ella Purnell, Omari Hardwick, Hiroyuki Sanada, Garret Dillahunt and Tig Notaro.

Remember when zombies used to be zombies? Shambling nasties who had a taste for brains? So does Resident Evil, but we'd argue that the twists and turns of the previous games ensured that Resident Evil Village was one heck of a rollercoaster. Check out the history of the series below.

Army Of The Dead's budget weighed in at about $80 million and its opening weekend saw it rake in $780,000 across 500 theatres. Now, I'm no economist, but there's quite a difference between those two statistics. Furthermore, the film received "mixed or positive reviews" from 42 critics from all over. That isn't stressing Netflix out, though, as it's given Army Of The Dead another go in a prequel titled Army of Thieves. Matthias Schweighöfer, who plays Dieter, reprises his role and the story follows "a mysterious woman [who] recruits bank teller Dieter to assist in a heist of impossible-to-crack safes across Europe." Not sure how many zombies will be in that one but Schweighöfer promises it will be a "heist film and it will be a very, very big one with scenes you've never seen before."

Then, there's Lost Vegas, an anime-style series that will give us a glimpse at Scott's origins as a soldier in the zombie wars. Both projects are undated at the moment, but Army of Thieves wrapped filming in December 2020, so that one will theoretically arrive first.

Topics: Army of the Dead, Movies, News, Netflix