How was Army of the Dead's Alpha zombie Zeus created? Zack Snyder's zombie-heist movie has finally hit general release on Netflix, with the movie being the opening chapter in an already significantly built franchise. Two prequels are on the way in the form of Army of Thieves, directed by Matthias Schweighöfer (who plays Dieter in the first film), along with an anime-style series Army of the Dead: Lost Vegas. As things currently stand, the origins of the zombie outbreak in Army of the Dead remain relatively vague.
The film opens with a military convoy transporting the Alpha zombie Zeus, played by Richard Cetrone, only for an accident on the road to allow Zeus to escape, biting some soldiers who then transform into Alphas themselves, before setting his sights on the nearby Las Vegas. It's never outright stated in the movie itself how Zeus came to be, but a number of comments Snyder has made in interviews about the film shed some light on the zombie's origins.
Snyder has specifically referenced Area 51 as the point of origin for the zombie plague. With Zeus being carried in an armored military transport, and Las Vegas being within walking distance after his escape, this heavily hints to this being the location he's being transported from. As for how exactly Zeus himself came to be patient zero of the growing zombie population, Snyder's also offered hints on the subject.
Specifically, Snyder has indicated aliens being connected to Zeus' origins in some way. Of course, within such a sci-fi context, aliens tend to be the first thing that springs to mind at the mention of Area 51, but the exact details of how Zeus became the progenitor of the Alpha zombies remains unknown. Of course, that probably won't be the case for all that much longer.
Army of the Dead sets up a unique zombie hierarchy consisting of both typical "Shamblers" and the more intelligent "Alphas." The essential breakdown is that a bite from Zeus turns humans into Alphas, whereas a bite from another Alpha turns them into Shamblers. Clearly, this makes Zeus the most important zombie (and character) in the Army of the Dead mythos; he's a key figure for the zombie virus because of the unique way it affects him and is transmitted by him. Based on what's known about his origins, government experimentation — perhaps involving alien technology of some kind — is a likely explanation for his zombification.
Both Army of Thieves and Lost Vegas will explore the world before the rise of zombies in Army of the Dead, but the latter will seemingly take a deeper and more direct dive into what led to it, with numerous cast members from the film reprising their respective roles. It's probably a good bet that Lost Vegas will show Zeus when he was still human and the circumstances that led to his zombie transformation. With both aliens and Area 51 having some role to play in the creation of Zeus, his first appearance in Army of the Dead surely won't be his last, with the franchise's prequel entries set to pull back the curtain on the events before the zombie outbreak and how Zeus himself became the first of the Alphas.