The latest chapter in Netflix’s rapidly-expanding cinematic universe arrives on Friday when Army of Thieves hits Netflix, a little over five months after Zack Snyder’s Army of the Dead exploded out of the blocks to become one of the platform’s ten most-watched original movies ever.
As part of Snyder’s exclusive development deal with the streamer it was announced that a direct sequel is in development, while animated companion series Lost Vegas lands early next year, so it’s all systems go for the undead franchise. The opening chapter may have been a balls to the wall blockbuster, but Army of Thieves is a much smaller and more contained project.
Set six years before the zombie apocalypse forces Dave Bautista’s ragtag band of mercs to infiltrate Las Vegas, director and star Matthias Schweighöfer’s Dieter is traversing around Europe with a motley crew of his own to pull off some impossible heists. The early responses have begun rolling in, and Army of Thieves is faring almost identically to its predecessor.
At the time of writing, Army of Thieves holds a 69% Rotten Tomatoes score with close to 20 reviews in the bag, while Army of the Dead wound up with a 67% score from a much larger total of 280 critical reactions. That number could rise of fall drastically over the coming days, but at least it’s not being panned.
