Somewhat surprisingly, one of the American director Zack Snyder's least controversial films is Army of the Dead. In the 2021 film, a group of hired guns plan to rob a Las Vegas casino in the middle of a zombie apocalypse.
The Netflix original film starred Dave Bautista, Ella Purnell, Omari Hardwick, Ana de la Reguera, Theo Rossi, Matthias Schweighöfer, Nora Arnezeder, Hiroyuki Sanada, Tig Notaro, Raúl Castillo, Huma Qureshi, and Garret Dillahunt.
Snyder had previously stated that the zombie heist movie was a spiritual continuation of Dawn of the Dead (2004), the movie that made him somewhat of a household name.
At the time of its release, Army of the Dead became one of Netflix's most-watched movies (somewhat helped by the fact that everyone was stuck at home due to the COVID-19 pandemic). The film's popularity prompted the streamer and Snyder to plan a ton of sequels and spinoffs, including an animated prequel.
However, it looks as if the project is no longer moving forward, according to a new interview the director did with Total Film Magazine to promote his upcoming space opera, Rebel Moon.
"Army of the Dead has a pretty vast mythology that never made it into the movie. There’s actually a character from Rebel Moon in the Army of the Dead animated series that we never did."
Army of the Dead: Lost Vegas was the title of the now, canceled animated prequel.
Snyder went on to explain, "At one point in the show, they go through a portal into another dimension, and there are characters in that other dimension that they come across. In Rebel Moon, they’re in this bar, and one of the aliens is one of the characters from the animatic. So it’s definitely a shared universe."
"We did all the scripts and the animatics, and all the voices are recorded. So you could watch it, even in its crazy animatic form – you can watch the whole run," shared the Watchmen director.
Dave Bautista, Ana De La Reguera, Tig Notaro, Omari Hardwick, and Ella Purnell were all slated to return for the animated prequel.
Joining them would be a few stellar A-listers and frequent Snyder DCEU collaborators including Joe Manganiello, Christian Slater, Harry Lennix, Ross Butler, Anya Chalotra, Vanessa Hudgens, Jena Malone, Yetide Badaki, Monica Barbaro, Christina Wren, and Nolan North.
The cancellation of the series has now led many to speculate upon whether the live-action sequel, Planet of the Dead, has also been canceled. Some Snyder fans are wondering if the Netflix streamer wants Snyder to give his full concentration to Rebel Moon and its many-faceted, tie-in projects.
Stay tuned to Toonado for future updates as we examine whether there's additional fallout in the'Armyverse.'