Zack Snyder’s Army Of The Dead began life as a sequel to his Dawn of the Dead remake before becoming a standalone movie on Netflix. But that was just the beginning, as we’ve now gotten word that the project is expanding into its own franchise of sorts.
In addition to the main event, Snyder is teaming up with director and showrunner Jay Oliva to develop an anime prequel to the film called Army of the Dead: Lost Vegas. Snyder and Oliva will each direct two episodes of the animated series, which will serve as an origin story for David Bautista’s character, Scott, and chronicle the fall of Las Vegas during the zombie outbreak. Bautista, Ana de la Reguera, Tig Notaro, Omari Hardwick and Ella Purnell will all reprise their roles, voicing their respective characters from the main feature.
And that’s not all. Snyder’s latest agreement with Netflix will also see a live-action Army of the Dead prequel hit the streaming service in multiple languages. This project will be directed by German actor Matthias Schweighofer and follow his character from the main feature, Ludwig Dieter.
Snyder would likely have been more heavily involved in the development of the live-action prequel, but the work he’s doing on his director’s cut of Justice League for HBO is presumably keeping him busy these days. He did have this to say about the two prequels, though:
“I’m incredibly excited for the opportunity to partner with Netflix again as we expand the Army of the Dead universe with both an international prequel, as well as exploring the visually dynamic world of animation. It’s been a great collaboration and we are thrilled that Netflix sees this as big of an IP as we do.”
So, 2021 is shaping up to be a good year for Snyder fans, then, with his version of Justice League due to land on HBO Max and Army of the Dead also coming to Netflix next year. A release date for the prequels hasn’t been announced, though you would expect them to debut before the main event.