Zack Snyder’s Army of the Dead hits Netflix next month, but the zombie heist film is already expanding as a franchise. A prequel film began production last fall and now, Snyder has confirmed the prequel’s title. During a Q&A following the release of the Army of the Dead trailer on Tuesday (via Screen Rant), Snyder revealed that the upcoming prequel is titled Army of Thieves.
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Army of Thieves will follow the characters for Army of the Dead before the events of the film, in the early days of the zombie apocalypse. The film will center around the backstory of Ludwig Dieter, played by Matthias Schweighöfer. Schweighöfer will also direct the film and is joined in the cast by Nathalie Emmanuel (Game of Thrones), Guz Khan, Ruby O. Fee, Stuart Martin, and Jonathan Cohen.
As for Army of the Dead, that film stars Dave Bautista (Guardians of the Galaxy) as well as Ella Purnell (Sweetbitter, Kick-Ass 2), Omari Hardwick (Power, Kick-Ass), Theo Rossi (Luke Cage), Ana De La Reguera (Cowboys and Aliens, Narcos), Huma Qureshi (Viceroy’s House, Gangs of Wasseypur), Hiroyuki Sanada (Avengers: Endgame, Westworld), Garret Dillahunt (Fear the Walking Dead, Deadwood), Raúl Castillo (Seven Seconds, Looking), Nora Arnezeder (Mozart in the Jungle, Origin), Matthias Schweighöfer (You Are Wanted, The Most Beautiful Day), Samantha Win (Arrow, Wonder Woman) and Rich Cetrone (300, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice). Snyder has previously described the film as “genre-on-genre in a great way.”
“It is a full-blown, balls-to-the-wall zombie heist movie, so it’s genre-on-genre in a great way,” Snyder told Entertainment Weekly. “So you expect pure zombie mayhem, and you get that, 100 percent. But also you get these really amazing characters on a fantastic journey. It’s going to surprise people that there’s a lot of warmth and real emotion with these great characters.”
“With Dawn [of the Dead], we made a zombie movie but tried to do it all the way with all of those tropes of the genre,” the director added. “That was so fun, so I started to think of what were other genres that story didn’t have room for. It’s this tone where you have fun with the genre but you don’t make fun of the genre — it’s a fine line.”
Army of the Dead is expected to hit Netflix on May 21st.
