Jesse Eisenberg Blames Deadpool for Zombieland Sequel Delay

The original Zombieland debuted in 2009 and, even though it became a major success, fans have had to wait a decade for the upcoming Zombieland: Double Tap, which star Jesse Eisenberg claims is because of the writers becoming such hot commodities in Hollywood, they had to wait until they finished working on Deadpool films to get the best script. Luckily, the actor implies that the wait will be worth it, as part of the wait meant holding out for the best script for a follow-up adventure, which they seemingly scored with the upcoming sequel. Zombieland: Double Tap lands in theaters on October 18th.

“We waited 10 years to do the movie—well, we didn’t wait, we were trying to do the movie right after the first one because the first one was so popular, and we waited for the best script,” Eisenberg shared with The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. “In the meantime, the two writers, Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, did Deadpool, and then we were kind of waiting for them to finish that so they could write this. We were all waiting, me, Woody Harrelson, Emma Stone, Abigail Breslin, we were all waiting for the best script and it finally came.”

As the stars, and fans, were waiting for that new installment to come, a Zombieland TV series earned a pilot, but the series never moved forward with Amazon Studios.

Through comic mayhem that stretches from the White House and through the heartland, these four slayers must face off against the many new kinds of zombies that have evolved since the first movie, as well as some new human survivors. But most of all, they have to face the growing pains of their own snarky, makeshift family.

In addition to getting the original stars and writers back on board, the film is directed by original filmmaker Ruben Fleischer, who crafted last year’s Venom. The filmmaker confirmed that the upcoming film will be worth the wait.

“The easy answer is, I think we all wanted to stretch our legs a little bit and try different things,” Fleischer revealed earlier this year. “I think we were all excited to do other stuff. But, the other thing is, we just couldn’t figure out the right story to tell. It took a minute to get a story that we all felt was worthy, to come back to Zombieland for. We all have so much love for the original. So, we held ourselves to a really high standard as far as making sure that, if we were going to make a sequel, that it be at least as good, if not better, than the original. And that ultimately all comes down to the script. So, we were all demanding and discerning to make sure the story was one that was worth getting the gang back together. Sometimes it does take time to get that right.”

Zombieland: Double Tap hits theaters on October 18th.

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