Whatever you think of his signature visual flourishes, heavy-handed overwrought dialogue and the generally self-serious tone that permeates the majority of his work, it can’t be denied that Zack Snyder always delivers the goods when it comes to worldbuilding. Even his weaker films like Sucker Punch are burdened with an elaborate and painstakingly crafted in-universe mythology, and Netflix’s upcoming zombie heist actioner Army of the Dead looks to be no different.
If you ever see an interview with the filmmaker, you’ll notice that the words ‘cool’ or ‘awesome’ come up at least once, as you’d expect from such a visually-driven director with his own identifiable aesthetic. One of the major criticisms throughout his career, though, is that his narratives have never managed to provide substance that’s equal to the style, but that’s much less of an issue with Army of the Dead than it is for something like Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice or Justice League.
It’s an original story with a high concept premise that fans have no pre-existing attachment to, giving Snyder a completely blank slate to craft his world and its rules from the ground up. And in a new interview, he revealed the only thing immune from Army of the Dead‘s virus that’s created hordes of hyper-intelligent and organized zombies.
“The only creatures immune from the zombie virus are birds. That was the one thing that we decided in our science because you know, it is science, that birds would be immune.”
As the trailer’s breakout star Valentine made perfectly clear, the animal kingdom is obviously susceptible to the virus, which is something that not a lot of zombie efforts use as a storytelling device. And at the moment, Army of the Dead looks as though it’s going to be balls to the wall entertainment from start to finish, with Snyder let off the leash to make exactly the movie he wanted without compromise.