Zombieland TV Show In Development

Zombieland director Ruben Fleischer has repeatedly claimed that no sequel will be made for his 2009 film, but that hasn’t stopped fans from hoping for more of Columbus, Tallahassee, Wichita, and Little Rock. If you’re one of those eager fans itching to see more, you’re in luck, as there’s now news of CBS putting together a show based on the popular movie.

Not much is known about it just yet but you can check out the leaked character descriptions below.

Tallahassee is still kind of a snarky weirdo, but he seems to have a much less spiky relationship with Columbus. He and Columbus have a pretty amusing thing where they riff on the fact that Steven Seagal movies always have three-word titles like “Marked for Justice” or “May Cause Diarrhea.” But Tallahassee also dispenses homespun wisdom about how to feel happy with your life. He also tells a weird story about being in a trailer park with a perpetually nude Matthew McConaughey. He also has a somewhat heartwarming scene where he tells Columbus that he’s been wandering aimlessly for a long time, but maybe he’s been put here for a reason — to help Columbus and the others.

Columbus is much the same, except that he tracks down his grandma and grandpa (Bubbie and Peepaw) only to find them recently zombiefied. Also, Columbus is trying to deal with his newfound relationship with Wichita, after their first kiss. He has started calling her “Krista,” her real name — but there are some problems, especially after she finds him reading a book about fatherhood. He tries to organize a romantic scavenger hunt for her in the IKEA they’re camping out in, but it goes kind of horribly.

Wichita is still trying to look after Little Rock, trying to teach her math with problems about someone stealing from a liquor store and jumping on a train going 42 miles per hour, with a cop chasing in a car going 88 miles per hour. We also learn a lot more about Wichita’s backstory, including how she ran away from her father after he had her stealing people’s Christmas presents — and later, she found out she had a sister who was also being a grifter with her dad.

Little Rock seems actually kind of excited about meeting Columbus’ grandparents, before they turn out to be zombies. And she shares some of her own backstory, about how her dad parked her at a school while he went off grifting on his own — and then yanked her out of school right before a dance that she was looking forward to.

Fred and Ainsley are two office workers at the start of the zombie apocalypse, obliviously complaining about problems with their iPhones and getting the wrong order at Starbucks, which they admit are “first world problems” with a hashtag — while people are being disembowled just outside the window they’re not facing. Tallahassee shows up to bring them their lunch orders, wearing a green polo shirt.

There’s always the possibility that the descriptions are being used purely for casting purposes and don’t actually have much to do with the show’s characters or the plot, however, they’re still an intriguing look at how the show may go about reinventing the film’s characters.

Writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick originally created the story as a TV pilot hoping to capitalize on the zombie boom of the early 2000s. CBS rejected the show in 2005 and the writers later adapted the script into the feature film that we got to see in theatres. There was talk of the show being developed in 2011, but when no further news surfaced, people dismissed the talk as mere rumours.

Personally, I liked the film so much that I don’t know if I could bring myself to watch a show with anyone other than the original four cast members playing their roles. That being said, perhaps the show will focus on other people who were still surviving in that world. Even then, I still don’t know if the show would do the excellence of the film justice, but I’m not totally opposed to seeing it try, especially considering how enjoyable the comedic take on a zombie apocalypse is as compared to the usual bleak world that is presented.

What do you think of this Zombieland TV show? Is it something you’re interested to see or are you content with leaving the story where the movie ended? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.