Audiences around the world have been enjoying Army of the Dead‘s no-holds-barred zombie action. Director Zack Snyder doesn’t skimp on the gore, providing a bunch of seriously gross sequences of the undead getting obliterated by a mounted gun, a zombie tiger chewing a dude’s face off, and some insanely graphic head explosions. But mixed in with this are several hints that not all is what it seems.
There are UFOs in the opening sequence, some of the zombies appear to have robotic endoskeletons and, most intriguingly, there’s a chance that a time travel/loop is at play. The most obvious evidence comes as the gang are trying to break into the vault and find several decomposing bodies waiting for them. They’re too far gone to be identified, but it’s explicitly pointed out that they’re wearing suspiciously similar clothes to our heroes (and one has a telltale key necklace).
Now, Snyder has indicated that there’s another set of corpses that could be from a previous loop. In an interview with TheFilmJunkee’s Vodka Stream, he dropped a cryptic clue and said:
“I will also say that, like… there’s a chance – and I’m not saying this is 100% true, and in some ways it’s not – but the group at the table, I mean, it’s pretty subtle, but that’s them also at the table as well as… they get farther every time. Like, is this the time they made it all the way to the money?”
The time loop concept might mean that further films in the Army of the Dead franchise can be both prequels and sequels, though it’s unclear what’s causing this loop to occur. Then again, the internet has been thick with theories ranging from alien nanotechnology to Snyder making a metatextual nod to his movie being streamed millions of times.
In any case, Netflix has big plans for this mini-cinematic universe that’ll soon bear fruit. Prequel Army of Thieves has already wrapped shooting and is expected to drop later this year, and anime-style series Army of the Dead: Lost Vegas is in production now and will show the characters during the initial outbreak.
Whatever happens, I expect Netflix will offer Snyder a deal to make further originals for them and I don’t think it’ll be too long until we start hearing whispers of Army of the Dead 2. Let’s just hope we get an explanation of the many mysteries the first film delivers.
