Zombieland: Double Tap Director Teases Details About Advanced “T-800” Zombies

In the 10 years since we last saw zombies in Zombieland, the world of the franchise has seen a new threat develop, with Zombieland: Double Tap director Ruben Fleischer sharing new details about how the new threats feel like an iconic cyborg from The Terminator. While other stories featuring the undead ghouls over such a long period of time typically show the threats decaying over the years, Fleischer confirms that the zombies in the new film will pose unexpected challenges to our heroes. The filmmaker did note that, keeping in line with the tone of the original film, the protagonists categorize the monsters in a humorous way.

“As far as the zombies, yeah, I think our heroes are a little complacent because the zombies don’t present much of a challenge anymore,” Fleischer shared with Fandango. “They’ve started to categorize them into different groups. There’s ones that they call Homers, who are kind of the dumber zombies. There are the Ninjas who are a little bit more crafty and they might sneak up on you. And then there’s the Hawkings, who are smarter zombies.”

He adds, “Then there’s a new kind of zombie that they haven’t met before called a T-800, a name for the infamous Terminator. These T-800s are much more dangerous, threatening form of zombie. For the first time, I think our heroes feel like they’re in true jeopardy because of this newly evolved form of zombie.”

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.

One of the more memorable zombies in the original film was seen in the finale, who was dressed as a clown, as Jesse Eisenberg’s Columbus revealed he hated clowns more than zombies. Fleischer doesn’t want audiences to expect to see a similar character appear in the new film.

“Truth be told, we tried to not retread a lot of the same ground as the first one,” Fleischer pointed out. “We really tried to make it feel fresh and original. So we didn’t kind of go after a lot of the same things from the first. I mean, there are some things that are consistent like the Zombie Kills of the Year, for example. But we wanted to not just go after Twinkies and clowns again; we tried to create new scenarios. But clowns are very popular right now.”

Zombieland: Double Tap hits theaters on October 18th.

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