Zack Snyder’s name has become synonymous with universe building over the years. Ever since he waded into the DCEU by launching the Superman franchise with Man of Steel, Snyder was doing heavy lifting to build towards his Justice League, which finally is available on HBO Max after years of waiting. Snyder’s DC tenure is over (for now), and he’s switching gears back to the zombie genre for his upcoming Netflix film, Army of the Dead. But that doesn’t mean he’s done building larger worlds around his characters.
Zack Snyder took part in a press event following the release of his new Army of the Dead trailer (which we will include below). And while answering questions about his upcoming zombie-casino-heist thriller, Snyder shared details on not one but TWO projects he has coming from this world. Snyder said:
We just wrapped on Army of Thieves, which is the movie we shot, and Matthias (Schweighofer) directed that was shot in… he's the safe cracker eater, and we see his backstory, and (learn) how he fell in love with and got obsessed with cracking safes. And why the safe in the movie (Army of the Dead) is significant to him. Which it is, and that's all revealed in the story.Then we have an animated prequel also, which tells the story of where these zombies came from and what their deal is. It goes to Area 51 and does a whole bunch of psychedelic craziness, which is cool also. Let's just say it scales in a way that's unexpected, as far as like where the zombies come from. So those two things, we're doing them currently as we're doing this. And then of course, Army tells its own story about the world in a pretty fun way, too.
When we were lucky enough to visit the set of Zack Snyder’s Army of the Dead, which took over an empty casino floor in Atlantic City, New Jersey, Snyder opened up a bit about the alien origins of zombies, and the tease of Area 51 in their story. I wonder if any of that will get explored in the live action version of Army of the Dead that’s coming to Netflix in May. It’s not in the trailer, though the Army footage is totally badass and worth a watch, regardless.
The cool thing about a spinoff movie based on Matthias Schweighofer’s safecracker is that the same can happen for almost all of the characters introduced in Army of the Dead. Zack Snyder seems to have placed an array of colorful weirdos around leading grunt Dave Bautista, and providing they all survive this mayhem, audiences might love to follow more adventures from characters like Cruz (Ana de la Reguera) or Marianne Peters (Tig Notaro).
We can see what madness Zack Snyder cooked up when Army of the Dead hits select theaters on May 14, followed by landing on the Netflix platform on May 21.
