Zack Snyder has teased that a character who was presumed dead by the end of his zombie film Army of the Dead has a chance to return in the sequel Planet of the Dead. The original film, which followed a crack team performing a casino heist in Las Vegas despite the city being overrun with hordes of the undead, premiered on Netflix in May of this year. The streamer is transforming the film into a sprawling franchise, which is planned to encompass at least 2 sequels, a prequel, 3 spinoffs, and the animated prequel Army of the Dead: Lost Vegas, which is coming Spring 2022.
One of the members of the heist team at the center of Army of the Dead is Dieter, played by Matthias Schweighöfer. Dieter is a safecracker who was hired to get the team into Bly Tanaka's massive vault. Unfortunately, at the end of the film, he sacrificed himself by throwing himself in the path of the intelligent Alpha zombie Zeus so Omari Hardwick's character Vanderohe could get into the safe. Although he was presumed dead, he is set to appear in the prequel Army of Thieves, which is set six years before the events of Army of the Dead. The film will follow Dieter as he hones his safecracking skills during the very beginning of the zombie apocalypse. Army of Thieves was directed by Schweighöfer himself and will premiere on Netflix this week.
As it turns out, Dieter may be the glue that holds the whole franchise together. While speaking with Inverse, director Zack Snyder was asked if fans would see what Dieter is up to between the events of Army of Thieves and Army of the Dead and received a surprising answer. He admits that "we don’t see [Dieter] die on camera, and there’s still some time left." He doesn't want to reveal any plot details of the new film, but "let’s just say that there’s a chance Dieter survives." Read the full quote below:
Clearly, he’s used his money to open a locksmith shop wherever he is — Barstow or San Bernandino. I don’t know that he’s done a ton other than [accrue] a clientele. He certainly has a lot of confidence in his ability to [install] locks on their back porches.
But the real adventure would be to see what happened to him when that safe door closed. Did he get killed by Zeus or not? What happened? We don’t see him die on camera, and there’s still some time left. I won’t tell you what happens in Army of the Dead 2 — aka Planet of the Dead — but let’s just say that there’s a chance Dieter survives. And there’s a chance that brush with death would have caused him to want to find a jailed Gwendoline.
The Gwendoline that Snyder is referring to is a character who will be introduced in Army of Thieves. She is the mysterious woman who masterminds the heist that the film centers around, bringing Dieter into his very first job. She is also the namesake of the locksmith business that Dieter operates in the original film. Gwendoline is played by Nathalie Emmanuel, a British actress who was most recently seen in F9 reprising her Furious 7 role as Ramsey, the hacker who created the God's Eye.
Planet of the Dead is currently in pre-production, so not many casting details are known yet. However, Schweighöfer has been deeply involved with the franchise throughout its development, so it's likely that if he is set to reappear, the decision has already been made. Snyder's Dieter name drop certainly seems like a lot more than just a hint, considering he knows exactly how the character would fit into the plot of the film.
Source: Inverse
