Zack Snyder's Army of the Dead 2 is on! And it even has a new title! A spiritual successor to Snyder's 2004 Dawn of the Dead, Army of the Dead follows a group of mercenaries who've taken a job to recover millions of dollars from a Vegas casino.
The only obstacle in their path is that the city has been quarantined, is full of zombies, and is scheduled to get nuked out of existence.
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Army of the Dead has 68% on Rotten Tomatoes, but fares better with an audience score of 75%. When it comes to Netflix giving the okay for follow-ups, the audience reception is everything —just look at Jupiter's Legacy, which has been cancelled instead of getting a second season.
Snyder's Zombie heist is on track to become one of Netflix's top 10 biggest films according to the streaming service (via Deadline) and is on course to be watched by 72M households in its first four weeks out in the wild.
Army of the Dead 2 was confirmed in a The Hollywood Reporter story, so here's everything we know so far about a possible Army of the Dead 2. Beware of spoilers for Army of the Dead!
Army of the Dead 2 release date speculation
Army of the Dead dropped on Netflix on May 21, after its cinematic debut on May 14. Production was hardly snappy on the first one, and most have eyes on a 2024 release date.
In the meantime, Army of the Dead is getting a prequel on Netflix called Army of Thieves. The synopsis is already up on the website and reads: "In this prequel to 'Army of the Dead,' a mysterious woman recruits bank teller Dieter to assist in a heist of impossible-to-crack safes across Europe."
Almost all of the cast was killed off at the end of the first film, including Matthias Schweighöfer's Ludwig Dieter. The prequel focuses on the early days of the zombie outbreak, and also stars Nathalie Emmanuel (Game of Thrones), Ruby O. Fee (Asphalt Burning), Stuart Martin (Jamestown), Guz Khan (Four Weddings and a Funeral), Jonathan Cohen (Budapest), and Noémie Nakai (Death Note: New Generation).
Another prequel, Army of the Dead: Lost Vegas, is an animated series that sees the actors from the movie reprise their roles. Fans can expect to learn more about Dave Bautista's Scott Ward, and the start of the outbreak. We're expecting six episodes total with Snyder directing two of them.
Army of the Dead 2 title
Army of the Dead 2 will be called Planet of the Dead, as confirmed in an interview with Snyder.
Army of the Dead 2 cast and plot
If you've watched Army of the Dead already, and heeded our spoiler warning, you'll know that everyone on the heist crew is dead — with the exception of Omari Hardwick's Vanderohe, and Ella Purnell's Kate Ward.
The last time we saw Vanderohe, he'd made it out of Vegas with a ton of money and was on a flight to New Mexico. The wrinkle in that plan? It turns out he was bitten, and that's the basis for the sequel's plot according to Snyder.
Talking to Polygon about Army of the Dead 2, Snyder says "I’d make it in a second. What we have planned is too crazy. Once we knew Vanderohe was bit, and he’s going to Mexico City, I was like, ‘You know what’s gonna happen?’ And then I just went on a tear. And by the time it ended, [co-writer Shay Hatten] was like, ‘OK.’"
Snyder also points out a few Easter eggs, including the robot zombies, and the address on the shipping container that alpha zombie Zeus escapes from at the outset of film. Zeus was being shipped off to Iran, with Snyder asking, "Like, is he some sort of covert bioweapon?" That's only a question you can answer Zack.
When asked about the time loop theory, Snyder responded "I don’t know, what is the deal?" referencing the bodies by the vault that look like the crew, and which spark the in-movie speculation. “Is Tanaka [the bankroller of the heist operation] Devil or God, and we’re just pawns in some perverse play?”
There are quite a few different threads to follow should we get an Army of the Dead sequel, and it sounds like Snyder has most of it mapped out. So all we need is for Netflix to give the go ahead.
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