Zack Snyder is roaring back in 2021 with two big movies, including his first original film in a decade: Army of the Dead. After his complicated exit from Justice League in 2017 and the fan campaign that followed for the release of the Snyder Cut, 2021 saw the release of Zack Snyder's Justice League in March and will also see Snyder return to the zombie genre on Netflix with Army of the Dead in May. Back in October 2019, before the Snyder Cut was even confirmed, Screen Rant visited the set of Army of the Dead to speak with the cast and crew and get a peek behind the curtain at Snyder's zombie epic.
After a dramatic tenure working for DC, there's a lot of curiosity surrounding Snyder's decision to go back to the zombie genre, with his 2004 version of Dawn of the Dead being one of Snyder's most critically successful movies, although Army of the Dead comes with a few twists that make it much bigger and way different from a simple zombie film. The partnership with Netflix makes it Snyder's first movie for a studio other than Warner Bros. since he made Dawn of the Dead for Universal in 2004, and the very first announcement promised it'd be Snyder "unchained," a phrase even more loaded with meaning than ever after the release of his epic 4-hour Snyder Cut.
Speaking with producers Deborah Snyder and Wes Coller, cast members like Dave Bautista, Theo Rossi, Ana de la Reguerra, Samantha Win, Raul Castillo, Nora Arnezeder, various members of the crew, and Zack Snyder himself, we got an epic first look at what Snyder has in store for viewers when Army of the Dead hits Netflix on May 21.
Army of the Dead Takes Place After the Zombie Apocalypse Already Happened
While Army of the Dead is billed as a zombie apocalypse movie, it isn't actually about the zombie apocalypse itself, as most of the movie takes place after the outbreak has already happened and been contained. After the initial plague starts, spreading from Area 51, the military engages the zombies in the Nevada desert as the first line of defense. When the military isn't enough, civilian militias begin to pick up the slack, which is where most of the main cast comes into play, joining together to become one of the most successful zombie-fighting teams in the war, known as Las Vengeance.
Eventually, the outbreak is contained to Las Vegas, where a wall of shipping containers is set up to fence the zombies in, containing the spread. Zack Snyder is famous for his opening sequences, especially Watchmen, and Army of the Dead will tell this story in its own opening credits sequence before picking up six years later after the outbreak has been contained and the world has settled into a sort of new, post-pandemic normal.
The wall circles Las Vegas and most of the world stays far away, other than a refugee camp along the wall, inhabited by anyone the government believes to be at risk of infection. Unfortunately, the fear of zombie infection means the government is granted additional authority to contain it, which is abused. According to Coller "anyone that the government feels may have an opinion that doesn't sync up with exactly what they want to be out there. It's this great place to point a thermometer at them to say “hey temperature seems to be dropping,” you know."As a result, a lot of people living in camp venture into the zombie-infested Vegas quarantine zone to try to find something valuable enough to bribe the guards so they can get out.
The Zombie Outbreak Originated in Area 51 (And Other Surprise Sci-Fi Elements)
The big twist and lingering mystery with Army of the Dead is the fact that the zombie infection originated in Area 51. Producer Deborah Snyder teases "it could be an experiment gone wrong or it could be a sci-fi element," but it's clear the outbreak's origin is a big tease for some other mysterious reveal about the nature of the zombies. Zack Snyder also teases the presence of "robot zombies," which he teases by simply asking "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?"
Whatever the nature of the zombie infection's origin, the zombies themselves also diverge from normal zombies. According to producer Wesley Coller, Zeus (Rich Cetrone) is the name of their patient zero, and "whether he's genetically engineered or he has part alien in him, but Zeus escapes from Area 51 and he's like our alpha, he's the king daddy, he starts the outbreak. When he bites you, we get other alphas. But if they bite you, it gets weaker and weaker and we get shamblers." During the zombie war, Coller says the faster, smarter alphas were sort of an urban myth, but there's a lot more of them in Vegas, and Zeus is even building an army for some unknown reason, but the fact that it inspires the title of the movie gives it a lot of significance.
Army of the Dead's Plot Synopsis and Las Vegas Heist Plan Explained
The bulk of the movie takes place after the initial zombie outbreak and war, jumping six years into the future. The Las Vengeance team is split up and the team's leader, Scott (Dave Bautista), is working as a short-order cook at a little diner where he's approached by Bly (Hiroyuki Sanada) to recruit him for a mission. The government is planning to nuke Vegas and get rid of the zombies (on the 4th of July because Deborah Snyder says "the president thought that was very patriotic"), but Bly has millions of dollars stashed in a vault beneath his casino, and it'll all be lost if it's not retrieved before the bomb drops.
Scott assembles his team, with the addition of a few new members, and heads into the Vegas quarantine zone, where, the deeper into the city they go, the more they discover about the alpha zombies and their plans. While the team is in the city, the government decides to drop the nuke earlier than expected. Not much was revealed about the plot beyond this point, but according to Deborah Snyder, "our team is stuck with a real big ticking clock. I won't spoil what happens, but like a true heist movie, I think the fun of it is everyone has their own motivations and is a lot of double-crossing."
The Cast and Characters of Army of the Dead
Zeus (Rich Cetrone)
As mentioned, Zeus is patient zero and escaped from Area 51. Snyder says Zeus is supposed to be somewhat sympathetic in the sense that he didn’t ask for this and it was apparently something done to him, and the faster, smarter alpha zombies are in the movie to create some empathy for the zombies and add a little moral ambiguity. When Zeus bites someone, it makes them another alpha, although other alphas only create standard "shambler" zombies.
Zeus is played by Rich Cetrone, who has been a stunt performer and played a variety of small roles on every single Zack Snyder movie to date, most famous for serving as Ben Affleck's Batman stunt double.
In concept art we were shown on set, he’s undead but not as traditionally “zombie” looking. He's depicted with a flowing ratty red cape and has a spear, depicted in one image with a skeletal head on the top and a spine dangling down. He also has a zombie horse. Some concept art shows him overlooking the city or patrolling the streets on his horse, but he’s also shown with glowing green eyes in some darker concept art. The first trailer doesn't show the red cape or green eyes, so it's not clear if those made it through to the final version, but it definitely presents him as much more of a threat than a simple zombie.
Scott (Dave Bautista)
Scott led the Las Vengeance team during the zombie war. Afterward, he had dreams of settling down and owning a restaurant or a food truck. He’s working as a short-order cook when he’s called on for the mission. His daughter, Kate (Ella Purnell), is a big part of the emotional heart of Army of the Dead, as said by Deborah Snyder: "I think it's the spine of the movie, and it's the heart of the movie because he's estranged from his daughter, and through the course of the movie we see their relationship kind of unfold and grow and kind of get healed."
Bautista is very much playing against type (or against what you’d expect, he says he really wants to be known as a serious dramatic actor). He said the only reason he took this movie was so he could learn how to direct from Zack Snyder. Debbie Snyder described him as a "gentle soul," and Theo Rossi raved about how unexpected his performance is, saying "You can't put Dave in a box."
Cruz (Ana de la Reguarea)
Cruz has a history with Scott, so Deborah Snyder says "there's some tension there and some playfulness" in their relationship. Cruz put the team together with Bautista's Scott during the zombie war, but they've been separated since. She owns a car shop and fixes up muscle cars and stuff and she told us the Las Vengeance taco truck (depicted in concept art as a weaponized zombie killing machine much like the busses in Dawn of the Dead with a "Las Vengeance" logo spray-painted on the side) is hers, although Dave Bautista also said it was his during his interview, which may be a simple mixup or an example of the complicated history between the characters.
Vanderohe (Omari Hardwick)
Vanderohe is another member of the original Las Vengeance team. He’s a “super zombie killer” according to Deborah Snyder, but also a philosopher who's citing frequently citing Joseph Campbell. Hardwick's character is supposed to be a bit of an enigma, subverting expectatiosn for a hardened zombie killer. Deborah Snyder says he has a soft, selfless side and he's working in a retirement home when they track him down to reunite the Las Vengeance team.
Geeta (Huma Qureshi)
Geeta is a mom whose family is in the camp. she goes into Vegas to try to get money to get her family out of the camp, but she never comes back.
Kate (Ella Purnell)
Kate is Scott’s daughter. Coller described her as a “selfless humanitarian” who works with people at refugee camps. She joins the mission so she can go into Vegas to find Geeta. Scott tries to stop her, but she says she’s going in anyway, so he might as well let her be as part of the zombie killing heist team so he can keep her safe instead of her going in on her own.
Lilly (Nora Arnezeder)
Also referred to as "The Coyote," Lilly lives in a storage locker along the wall and has been taking refugees inside Vegas to the casino to find money in slot machines or cashier's drawers so they can pay off guards to get out of the camp. She’s kind of punk rock and badass. She wears black fingerless gloves/bracers, has black makeup around her eyes, short bleached hair, a ragged black t-shirt for Scottish punk rock band “The Exploited” (the shirt was apparently specifically requested by Snyder). She also has a coyote skull and paw hanging from her belt and a small bird skull on her necklace. Arnezeder told us she doesn’t have a specific backstory, but in her mind she used to work at the casino.
Burt Cummings (Theo Rossi)
Burt Cummings is a border patrol guard who isn't really a part of the rest of the zombie hunting team. Deborah Snyder refers to as “kind of a villain,” although Theo Rossi referred to him unequivocally as a villain in our interview with him. Based on what we know about the guards, he probably abused his power and took bribes. It's not clear why he's a part of the team, but Deborah Snyder says it's for "reasons that you'll find out when you see the movie."
Bly (Hiroyuki Sanada)
Not much is known about Bly other than the fact that he owns the Bly Casino and he hires Scott and the Las Vengeance team to go get his money from the vault under his casino before the government nukes Vegas.
Martin (Garett Dillahunt)
Martin is Bly’s head of security. He’s joining the team to supervise and make sure the money is brought back. He’s also the only one not there by choice, which Coller says causes the rest of the team to "question what his true motivations are along the journey."
Ludwig Dieter (Matthias Schweighöfer)
Dieter is another new member to the Las Vengeance team. He joins because he's an expert safecracker, and one of the only people in the world who knows how to break into the specific type of safe for the vault below the Bly Casino. He has very little experience fighting zombies, but he's also the most important to keep alive because if he dies they won't be able to get the money out. Coller also praises Schweighöfer, who's since directed a prequel film about his character, Army of Thieves, as one of the film's sources of comedic relief "obviously the film is full of action and drama And all of those things and his ability to sort of break that tension and give you a moment of levity within some of those sequences is really great."
Guzman (Raúl Castillo)
Since the zombie outbreak originally happened 6 years before the main story of Army of the Dead, some parts of the world have changed because of that, and Guzman is one of the ways the movie explores that. He’s a YouTuber and social media influencer whose brand revolves around him coming up with crazy ways to kill zombies for his channel. He has a subscriber base he's trying to grow and checks in with regularly, although Castillo told us he deosn't have much time to vlog during the actual mission into Vegas. He has tons of experience killing zombies, and even has hash marks on his costume keeping track of his kill count, but he isn’t experienced in actual combat like the rest of the team. His presence could be seen as similar to Harlem Globetrotters were to join an NBA team.
Chambers (Samantha Win)
Chambers is close with Guzman and joins to protect him. Her background isn't as clear, but she's also highly skilled at killing zombies as well. Samantha Win has been doing stunts and playing small roles in Snyder's movies since Sucker Punch and is a Olympic martial artist so she has a lot of experience with stunt coordinator Damon Caro and the rest of the stunt team and does all her own stunts. Win told us on set "there’s a moment where I’ll get separated and that’s when Chambers gets to mow through some zombies," in a scene that could potentially showcase Army of the Dead's best action "I’ve kind of been groomed in a way to work to their style and their timing and their choreography already. So, the sky was the limit for us and we went crazy. She also wears a red bandanna and a green tank top that looks like an homage to Vasquez in Aliens, which Snyder said was one of the movie's influence, although that particular reference wasn't confirmed on set.
Marianne Peters (Tig Notaro)
Peters is a slightly complicated aspect for Army of the Dead. During principal photography, the role was played by comedian Chris D'Elia, but after a number of sexual misconduct allegations came out against D'Elia, Snyder recast the role and replaced him with another comedian, Tig Notaro in post-production. Not much was said about the role of Peters while we were on set, and D'Elia wasn't present, but from what we did learn, it sounds like he may actually be the easiest to replace, meaning Snyder's work swapping in Tig Notaro isn't as complicated than it would be for some of the other characters.
Peters is a pilot and mechanic and was a member of the original Las Vengeance team. The plan involves escaping Vegas on a helicopter from the top of the Bly Casino, so it's Peters' job to haul the gasoline the team hiked in (since the gas on-site will be too old to work) and make sure the helicopter is ready for flight, so Peters spends most of her time monologuing and cussing to herself doing while the rest of the team is off killing zombies. Snyder obviously had his eye on comedians for the role, so Notaro's Peters is another source of comedic relief.
Army of the Dead's Zombies Are a Lot Different Than Traditional Undead Shamblers
Army of the Dead is going to provide a number of twists from what audiences may expect from traditional zombie lore, in case the Area 51 origin didn't make that clear enough. Of course, this aspect of the plot isn't explained beyond teases, but Deborah Snyder said "whether he's genetically engineered or he has part alien in him, but Zeus escapes from Area 51 and he's like our alpha, he's the king daddy, he starts the outbreak. When he bites you, we get other alphas. But if they bite you, it gets weaker and weaker and we get shamblers."
While the whole world is aware of the shambler zombies, the true origin is only known by whatever the government knows from whatever was going on at Area 51, and the few people who encountered alphas, although according to producer Wes Coller, they may be mostly a myth:
"So these creatures that are mythological sort of lore, The fast ones that are unknown. Do they exist or not? As we make our way into the city we get to explore that world, and I think part of the fun is unlike a traditional shambler, which is a threat in its own right because there is a elevated Consciousness, there's some type of awareness we like to say that they are much like a wolf pack, so they're not talking, they're not communicating on that obvious of a level, but there's a much more elevated threat in that way."
In addition to the alphas and the shamblers, the infection can also spread to animals. The animal that get the most attention is the zombie white tiger, which everyone has now seen in the trailer (which has also since been revealed to be modeled off of one of Carole Baskin's tigers), but there's also a zombie horse ridden by Zeus, zombie dogs, and potentially more.
The Las Vegas Setting is Utilized To the Fullest
What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, including the zombies. Vegas is known to be a crazy place full of colorful characters from the entertainers and people who work there down to the eclectic assortment of tourists that visit Vegas year-round, so naturally, a zombie heist movie set in Vegas could get pretty crazy.
A lot of what we heard about on set has already been seen, particularly Valentine, the zombie white tiger (who was teased to take out at least one member of the squad in a "fun action sequence"), but expect to keep a lookout for some crazy zombie variations when the film arrives. Deborah Snyder described some examples of the kind of characters we'll see, including "zombie Elvises and our, we call her the queen, but she was like a Cirque du Soleil... it's fun to see remnants of what they were, whether it's a brides or whether it's the Thunder Down Under, or the Chippendales dancers as zombies, it's really fun to play with."
Samantha Win also described the Vegas craziness in our interview with her, including the depiction of a whole group of Elvis impersonators that met a gruesome demise "It really gave them so much opportunity for crazy characters with it being set in Vegas. Tigers…a group of Elvis’s that hung themselves, so as we’re navigating through a hallway there’s like seven Elvis impersonators that have hung themselves and it’s like where else would you find something like this? But it just makes it so interesting and appealing and visually stunning; the sequins the sparkles and the headdresses. Oh, my goodness. It’s gonna be insane."
Zack Snyder's Vision and Netflix’s Partnership Explained
Thanks to the high-profile conflict with Zack Snyder and Warner Bros., culminating in the release of the Snyder Cut, Snyder's relationship with the studio was a big focus in our on-set discussions. Deborah Snyder said "It's really hard unless you're making a big superhero film or a big franchise...to get content that's a little bit pokier, that's a little bit more irreverent, or maybe a drama to get made" but Netflix is a good fit for their team because she feels like "Netflix is allowing filmmakers the chance to make these films that otherwise would not be getting made."
Theo Rossi, who has experience from his tenure on a number of Netflix projects specifically praised the collaboration with Netflix and the creative freedom they've given Snyder, who's credited as writer, director, producer, director of photography, and even a camera operator, "It's almost like vertical integration with Zack. He's doing everything. And when you let someone off the chain like that, like Zack, who is just such a visual master and such an incredible filmmaker, we have this."
Snyder himself is also enjoying the partnership, saying "They’re very comfortable with the movie that I proposed to them and that’s a cool and great experience. It’s been an amazing relationship thus far."
The level of freedom afforded Zack Snyder by Netflix was a major talking point, not just with the filmmakers, but also the cast and crew. Theo Rossi said he accepted his role knowing nothing other than the fact that it was a Zack Snyder project, saying "that's all Zack’s vision and the team that he has. And when you have that it's just, you trust so much in it. So, yeah, that's my experience with everyone. It's amazing."
Dave Bautista also says he wouldn't have accepted the role for any other filmmaker, "That's why I signed up for this. Because I wanted to work with Zack." Although Bautista may also have other motives, as he half-jokingly said "I wanted to get in and learn from him and steal his stuff so I can go on and direct my films and take credit for his work. I steal his stuff and then my films look like his films."
Army of the Dead Will Look Way Different From Any Other Zack Snyder Film
Zack Snyder's name is synonymous with a lot of things, but his visuals are one of the most talked-about aspects of his films, so of course, that was a big emphasis in our on-set discussions. In fact, both Bautista and Rossi referred to Snyder as a "visual master." After speaking with Snyder on-set and seeing how he's approaching the movie, it's clear his approach here will be yet another evolution in his visual style.
The big talking point was the camera and lens technology. Snyder, like Christopher Nolan, has always been an advocate of shooting on film, especially IMAX, but Army of the Dead marks his first movie shooting digitally. However, that doesn't mean he abandoned an organic, tactile feel, as he may have leaned into that even more thanks to his lenses and decision to use only natural lighting during the shoot.
Coller said Snyder spent a lot of time reviewing different vintage lenses before settling on the "Canon dream lens," which Coller described as "perfectly imperfect." The 50mm f/0.95 Dream Lens used by Snyder provides a super shallow depth of field, meaning the area of focus in most shots is incredibly thin, which will usually give the background and foreground a much softer blur. In layman's terms, expect the cinematography to play with a lot of extreme focus, where the majority of a lot of the shots are blurry, other than the subject. This can already be seen a lot in the trailer set to Kenny Rogers' 'The Gambler', especially in shots like the reveal of the Zombie Queen. His decision to also shoot everything "wide open" will create a lot of high contrast scenarios where there's both blown out over-exposed light coming through a window and dark shadows in the same shot Coller describes as a "really photographic quality that I don't think is expected."
Coller and Deborah Snyder described extreme examples ranging from a scene in the Casino where the only sources of light are the flashlights and muzzle flashes of the guns, or a crash sequence Snyder wanted to shoot at night in the desert, which took two weeks to complete because there was only a 20-minute window each night where the lighting met their needs. Dave Bautista told us they'd stick a tube light in some scenes when absolutely necessary if there were no other light sources, otherwise, it's all natural light.
The movie is also mostly shot on practical sets. Most set-photos from Snyder's recent DC films have shown giant green screen sound stages, but according to Army of the Dead's VFX supervisors, only one scene was shot on a sound stage, with most of it being either on location or on a practical set on the backlot in New Mexico. The VFX team did a full scan of the Las Vegas Strip, employing scissor lifts and drones over the course of about a week to capture lidar scans and HD photography of the Strip at various heights to create a 3D model from which they created their devastated vegas. So, while there's certainly a lot of VFX employed, including CGI creatures like the zombie tiger, Army of the Dead should have a much more intimate, grounded, and tactile feel than the big spectacle of his comic book movies.
