Night of the Living Dead Sequel Rights Secured by MGM, Aiming for Theatrical Release
The 1968 Night of the Living Dead from filmmaker George A. Romero is a seminal film for a number of reasons, and while the legacy of that film has been expanded in various ways over the decades, MGM is in final negotiations to distribute an upcoming sequel from Nanny director Nikyatu Jusu, per Deadline. The exciting element of this deal is that the plan is for the film to be released theatrically, as opposed to merely debuting on a streaming service. Given the number of follow-up installments, remakes, and reboots of the source material that have gone straight to home video, this new sequel could bring the dormant franchise back from the dead.
Romero's original film was far from the first movie to embrace the lore of zombies, though its theatrical success did help establish the mythology of undead ghouls who craved human flesh. Romero himself followed up his original film with Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead, and Land of the Dead, with each film jumping forward by significant periods of time to explore how society and survivors have coped with the monstrous creatures. He would also go on to helm two more zombie films, Diary of the Dead and Survival of the Dead.
Unlike other long-running cinematic series, the uniting factor between many of Romero's film was just the world the narrative would unfold in, as opposed to seeing heroes or villains return for more adventures. It's currently unknown what the details of the sequel's storyline will be.
In addition to Romero's proper sequels, his Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead have both earned remakes, with the home-video market also seeing various unofficial continuations of such projects. Just last year, SYFY unveiled a Day of the Dead TV series, a project which aimed to honor Romero's film, though leaned more into the specifics of the title by exploring the 24 hours after a zombie emergence began to unfold.
"The original version of Night of the Living Dead is still so resonant to this day," Jusu previously shared when the project was announced. "Every era has the zombie that it needs and right now, zombies reflect the ways that humans treat each other and show us who is truly the monster."
While there have been a number of zombie projects that are derivative of the original 1968 film, a theatrical release for the sequel could see the series returning to its rightful glory. Stay tuned for details on the Night of the Living Dead sequel.
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