Zack Snyder’s Justice League is not the only new Zack Snyder movie coming out in the next few months. While all eyes are understandably focused on the release of “The Snyder Cut” of Justice League on HBO Max on March 18th, Netflix has announced that the 300 filmmaker’s new zombie movie Army of the Dead will be released just a couple of months later on May 21, 2021. And to mark the occasion, they’ve revealed the very first teaser poster for the film.
Written by Snyder, Shay Hatten, and Joby Harold and based on an original story by Snyder, Army of the Dead combines the zombie apocalypse genre with the heist genre. The story revolves around a group of mercenaries who decide to risk their lives by venturing into the quarantined city of Las Vegas – the site of a zombie outbreak – to pull off the greatest heist ever attempted.
The ensemble cast features Dave Bautista, Ella Purnell, Omari Hardwick, Ana De La Reguera, Theo Rossi, Matthias Schweighöfer, Nora Arnezeder, Hiroyuki Sanada, and Garret Dillahunt. The film also originally stared comedian Chris D’Elia, but following sexual misconduct allegations he was removed from the film, and Snyder replaced his character with Tig Notaro through some cutting edge reshoots that inserted the Star Trek: Discovery actress and comedian into scenes in the film.
Army of the Dead returns Snyder to the zombie genre for the first time since his feature directorial debut, the well-received Dawn of the Dead remake written by James Gunn. After that film, Snyder solidified himself as a gifted visual stylist with films like the aforementioned 300 and Sucker Punch. He then, of course, was tasked with building out a connected DCEU with Man of Steel and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, which further pushed his visual style into “gritty” territory. To that end, Army of the Dead finds Snyder working as his own cinematographer for the first time, which adds a unique angle of interest for the Netflix original.
The streaming service is already bullish on franchise prospects for Army of the Dead as production has already wrapped on a prequel series focusing on Schweighöfer’s character. Schweighöfer wrote and directed all episodes of that series, which also stars Fast & Furious star Nathalie Emmanuel and is described as “multi-language.” That show will premiere globally on Netflix later this year.
Snyder, meanwhile, recently completed putting the finishing touches on his cut of Justice League after Warner Bros. gave him a budget to shoot a new scene and add additional VFX following his exit from the film early in post-production. That Zack Snyder’s Justice League and Army of the Dead are releasing so close together should mark an interesting point of comparison in terms of Snyder’s filmography.
So there you have it folks. Two new Zack Snyder movies in two months. Check out the teaser poster for Army of the Dead below. The film also stars Raúl Castillo, Huma Quereshi, Samantha Win, Richard Cetrone, and Michael Cassidy.
