Warning: the following contains SPOILERS for Army of Thieves.
Army of Thieves gives much more weight and relevance to the time loop set up by Army of the Dead. Army of Thieves, the prequel to Army of the Dead, is the second movie in the Army series. And because of the events in Army of Thieves, what Army of the Dead 2 will reveal about Zack Snyder’s time loop could potentially become one of the greatest moments in the director’s career.
Army of the Dead’s time loop theory started when Vanderohe (Omari Hardwick) and Ludwig Dieter (Matthias Schweighöfer) see skeletons outside the Götterdämmerung, in which Vanderohe comments about the possibility that the crew is committing the same heist over and over again, perpetually stuck in an endless cycle of death and rebirth. Fans have also pointed out the use of the Elvis Presley song “Suspicious Minds” in the intro sequence. The movie shows a newlywed couple as Elvis sings "We're caught in a trap, I can't walk out.” And because the song plays again in the end credits, this could hint that the time loop is indeed real.
Army of Thieves adds even more layers to the time loop theory by revealing Dieter’s backstory and the mythology behind all four of Hans Wagner’s Ring Cycle safes. As Dieter attempts to crack each safe, he plays the respective Richard Wagner opera on which each safe is based while explaining to Gwendoline (Nathalie Emmanuel) the tale behind each one. Das Rheingold, the Valkyrie, the Siegfried, and the Götterdämmerung – each of the Wagner operas/safes – is a seminal story that contains recurring tropes in film, television, and literary history. Much like the Army series itself which combines a wide variety of recurring genres and tropes, these stories represent cycles or loops in the history of classic and contemporary storytelling. In fact, the story that concludes Wagner’s opera, the Götterdämmerung, is about Ragnarok – the apocalypse of the Norse pantheon. Ragnarok, also known as the Twilight of the Gods, is a tale that’s about not just death, but rebirth and starting anew after the inevitable apocalypse. Apart from when Vanderohe explains the possibility of a time loop in Army of the Dead, the revelations about the Wagner safes in Army of Thieves are the strongest clues that the time loop could indeed be real.
Moreover, the way things ended with Gwendoline and Dieter suggests that Dieter himself caused the time loop. Gwendoline is presumably in jail while Dieter was last seen being dragged away by the alpha zombie Zeus. There are a number of ways for Dieter to survive this encounter. Considering the circumstances of their meeting, Zeus would be perceptive enough to recognize Dieter’s apparent intelligence and usefulness to the Vegas crew, which could allow Dieter to somehow strike a bargain with the alpha zombie. Based on this, Zeus could also decide to turn Dieter into an alpha zombie to serve the horde. In any case, while Dieter has already fulfilled his life’s goal of cracking all four Wagner safes, he still has one remaining key motivation for staying alive: reuniting with Gwendoline. Whatever the outcome of the atomic explosion in Las Vegas may be, whether Dieter is still a human or an alpha zombie, causing the time loop would be Dieter’s last chance at reliving his time with Gwendoline.
As Dieter explains in Army of the Dead, the Götterdämmerung is a “doorway to another realm.” And in Army of the Dead 2, Dieter could somehow use the Götterdämmerung to cause the time loop, echoing how master locksmith Hans Wagner locked himself inside his fifth and final safe, the only one of his creations that’s "capable of containing all his anguish and misery." This would certainly be a compelling twist in Gwendoline and Dieter’s tragic story.
Army of the Dead and Army of Thieves have combined classic horror tropes such as zombies, robots, and aliens in a darkly comedic mystery sci-fi narrative involving heists, mythology, romance, and possibly supernatural forces. Zack Snyder and Army of Thieves director Matthias Schweighöfer didn’t set up all these clues just to not include time travel to the list. In short, the time loop is real, and if Snyder plays his cards right in Army of the Dead 2, it might just become a defining moment in his filmography.