The Hollywood Reporter has revealed that George A. Romero’s classic zombie flick Night of the Living Dead is gearing up for an animated adaptation with an all-star voice cast. Night of the Animated Dead is directed by Jason Axinn, who is no stranger to animated horror, having made 2019's To Your Last Death. The film is an adaptation of Romero’s low-budget independent horror film that premiered in 1968. Set in a rural farmhouse in western Pennsylvania, the film followed a group of seven strangers who were trapped in the house as a group of cannibalistic ghouls tried to get inside. Over the past fifty years, Romero’s work has inspired countless other zombie films, despite never using the word “zombie” in initial the film.
Night of the Animated Dead features Dulé Hill as Ben, with Katee Sackhoff as Judy, Josh Duhamel and Nancy Travis as Harry and Helen Cooper, Katharine Isabelle as Barbara, James Roday Rodriguez as Tom, Jimmi Simpson as Johnny, and Will Sasso as Sheriff McClelland.
Romero also brought his ghouls to life in five subsequent films before his death in 2017: Dawn of the Dead (1978), Day of the Dead (1985), Land of the Dead (2005), Diary of the Dead (2007), and Survival of the Dead (2007), though the latter two were not part of the same continuity as Night of the Living Dead. Earlier this year Romero’s widow, Suzanne Romero, said that she was developing the final chapter of Romero’s Night of the Living Dead universe.
This is not the first time Romero’s world has been brought to life in a different medium, George Romero's Empire of the Dead was a limited-run comic series from Marvel written by Romero. There were other official spin-offs with IDW Publishing and DC Comics, and a later prequel comic penned by Romero's son, G. Cameron Romero.
Night of the Animated Dead does not have an official release date, but Warner Bros. Home Entertainment plans to release it this fall on Blu-ray, DVD, and digital.