Zack Snyder may have just confirmed some long-held fan theories about Army of the Dead and the franchise as a whole. In an exclusive interview with GamesRadar, Snyder discussed the expansion of the film's universe, including the quickly approaching prequel Army of Thieves and the now-confirmed sequel Planet of the Dead. In it, he goes on a small tangent about how the history of the first movie and its prequel feed into a time loop that he plans to explore in the sequel.
"I'm a huge fan of this mythological understory," Snyder said regarding the historical connection between the safes seen in Army of the Dead and its prequel as well as the background for villain Bly Tanaka. "All your time loop fun that you can have, there's a lot of cool enhancements that are baked in now. I can't wait to make the sequel to Army of the Dead, so that we can see how then all of those things manifest." It seems he's keen on exploring the time loop further in Planet of the Dead, only now with the added context of Dieter and the safes in the prequel movie.
Originally, fans came up with the time loop theory given some of the odd dialogue choices and mission sequences that seem like an alternate timeline where the heist goes off without a hitch. The key moment, however, is the group finding several bodies outside of Tanaka's vault with eerily similar clothing to themselves which, in context with Vanderohe seeing Tanaka as a puppet master and the key that looks identical to Maria's necklace, practically screams that they were there before. With Snyder teasing a time loop for the sequel, those clues feel a lot more ironclad.
Snyder has previously teased the popular fan theory. He brought up the clues that hint at a time loop in TheFilmJunkee's Vodka Steam, per ScreenRant, and, while he didn't outright confirm the theory, he danced around it:
I will also say that… 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. Is this the time they made it all the way to the money?
Before we get to see some time loop exploration on a planetary scale, we'll get to see more of our favorite German safecracker played by Matthias Schweighöfer in Army of Thieves starting on October 29th. The film follows Dieter in a traditional heist movie as he goes from small-town bank teller to international super thief cracking the most notorious safes in the world. While Snyder will still produce the film, it will be Schweighöfer's project to direct.