Zack Snyder’s Army of the Dead was hardly a shrinking violet, but it sounds as though direct sequel Planet of the Dead is going to be at least twice as insane as its predecessor if the filmmaker manages to cram even half of the ideas he’s been touting into the screenplay.
Army of Thieves was a light, breezy crime caper with romantic comedy elements, while upcoming animated companion series Lost Vegas will dive into the origins of the zombie apocalypse and why it involved the entirety of Las Vegas being walled in from the outside world. However, Snyder teased in a recent interview with Variety that he’s planning all sorts of crazy segues in the second mainline installment of the rapidly-expanding universe.
“First of all, I know exactly what I’d want to see in the sequel. We’re doing the animated series, which will come out next year. The animated series very much delves deeply into the ‘why’ of the zombie apocalypse and where the zombies come from exactly. I think the time loops, portals, doorways to other realms, things of that nature, are very much in play. So all of those clues that Dieter gives us are very much part of how we continue to spiral out the Army of the Dead universe.”
The thought of Snyder calling the shots on a big budget, action-packed zombie blockbuster that leans more into sci-fi and horror than its predecessor, but also incorporates time loops, portals to other dimensions and alternate realities while still revolving around another heist of some description sounds absolutely bats*t crazy.
Snyder famously even threw a literal kitchen sink into Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, but if he gets to utilize all of the concepts swirling around in his head, Planet of the Dead will make his DCEU crossover look like a quaint chamber piece by comparison.
