Zack Snyder's upcoming zombie movie, Army of the Dead, will feature a new breed of robotic zombies. Set for a limited theatrical run on May 14 followed by its official debut on Netflix on May 21, Army of the Dead is Snyder's second movie in the zombie genre after his feature directorial debut with 2004's Dawn of the Dead. Though the movie boasts an abundance of the undead, Army of the Dead is also far from a run of the mill zombie apocalypse movie.
The movie sees Dave Bautista in the role of Scott Ward, who is summoned to lead a team of mercenaries into the zombie-ridden Las Vegas to pull off a heist of millions of dollars. However, the city's zombie population proves to be more than just typical shambler zombies, with animal zombies and a more evolved zombie breed known as Alphas ruling over the Vegas strip. These also won't be the only kinds of zombies the team faces either.
In a Netflix Q&A provided to Screen Rant, Snyder explains that the mercenaries will also be faced with a new variant of cybernetically-upgraded undead killers, as well. Snyder further explained, as he has elsewhere, that Army of the Dead represents an "evolution" of zombies from how they've traditionally been showcased. Furthermore, the origins of the film's zombies will be delved into in the anime series Army of the Dead: Lost Vegas. Check out Snyder's explanation below:
In what ways were you aiming to set this film apart from other zombie films?
I had the idea from the beginning that these zombies were going to embody an evolution, that they were on their way to becoming something else, not stagnant like the zombies we're used to. It was a way to make them fresh, while still delivering the zombie canon in some ways. I really wanted this sort of weird ambiguity to their origins — which, of course, we’ll explore in the animated series, [Army of the Dead: Lost Vegas]. And without giving away too much...if you pay close attention, there's a number of zombies that are clearly not zombies. You see normal zombies and then you see some robot zombies. Are they monitors that the government has placed among the zombies to monitor them? Are they technology from the other world? What's happening there?
Snyder has been open about the creative freedom he's been granted on Army of the Dead, and robot zombies are nothing if not an evolution of the undead. Going off of Snyder's explanation, their origins are likely to be kept somewhat vague in the movie, though the proximity of Area 51 to Las Vegas is something Snyder has spoken of. Morever, Snyder's comment on the Lost Vegas anime series shows that the "Armyverse" is just getting started.
In addition to Army of the Dead and Lost Vegas, a prequel movie titled, Army of Thieves, has already been produced, under the direction of Matthias Schweighöfer, who also plays Ludwig Deiter in both films. Just under a month before the movie's debut, zombie lovers already have plenty to sink their teeth into between the standard shamblers and the evolved alphas, with their origins to be more fully revealed as the franchise unfolds. At the same time, Robo-zombies will throw quite a curveball into the zombie genre when Army of the Dead is unleashed on Netflix.
Source: Zack Snyder/Netflix