The long-awaited Zombieland 2 is finally in production, with director Ruben Fleischer (Venom) and writers Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese (Deadpool) bringing back the original movie’s quartet – Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone, Abigail Breslin and Woody Harrelson – for more horror-comedy hijinks.
Though it’s somewhat surprising that it’s taken so long for a sequel to materialize, it’s important to remember that, having earned just over $100 million globally on a production budget of about $25 million, the first pic didn’t exactly set the box office on fire. Still, it was hugely successful with critics and has found itself with quite the cult following in the years since release.
As such, hopes are high for Zombieland 2 and though details on what to expect have been hard to come by, Super Bro Movies have now got their hands on the outline of the plot, which teases new zombies and what sounds to be another wild adventure for the gang.
Here’s how it reads:
The sequel will follow the charismatic group of zombie slayers following the events of the first film as they settle into their post-apocalyptic lives. They’ve chosen a more luxurious lifestyle and decided to set up camp in the White House. After a disagreement between Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) and Wichita (Emma Stone) causes the group to split, Little Rock (Abagail Breslin) runs off with Berkeley (Avan Jogia), a guy she just met.
The group then sets off to rescue Little Rock, but, of course, they aren’t alone in the world. New types of zombies have overrun the world, they include Homers (dumb ones), Hawkings (smart ones) and Ninjas (deadly ones). Along the way, Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson) meets his match in the form of a female zombie-hunting badass named Nevada. This makeshift family will have to use all their skills and follow Columbus’ survival rules if they want to make it out alive.
Zombieland 2 is now shooting, from what we’ve been told, and will be in cinemas in time for October 11th. That’ll be ten years to the day since the release of the original, which kind of makes you wonder whether audiences will still be clamoring for more. After all, a decade is a long time to wait for a follow-up, but as we said above, the first film was loved by critics and certainly has a big following, so we’re quietly confident that the sequel will be able to bring folks into theaters when it arrives later this year.
And with production now underway, it hopefully won’t be too long before we see something in the way of official promotional material, be it some stills or even a teaser trailer. As always, watch this space for more.