Netflix's upcoming Army of Thieves will have romantic comedy elements, says producer Deborah Snyder. Earlier this year, the streaming giant looked to kick off a new franchise with the release of Zack Snyder's Army of the Dead. Billed as a heist movie mixed with the zombie apocalypse, Army of the Dead arrived with several spin-off projects already in the works. Now that Snyder's latest is a huge hit for Netflix, there's a lot of excitement surrounding said spin-offs, the first of which is Army of Thieves.

Put into development well before Army of the Dead even revealed its first trailer, Thieves will be a prequel centered around fan favorite safecracker Ludwig Dieter (Matthias Schweighöfer). The film will once again revolve around a heist, though it will have significantly less zombies. Schweighöfer serves as director for Army of Thieves, while Snyder is a producer. It also stars Nathalie Emmanuel, Ruby O. Fee, Guz Khan, Stuart Martin, and Jonathan Cohen. As of right now, Army of Thieves is without a premiere date, though it's expected to arrive sometime this year.

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Over the weekend, Army of Thieves held a Comic-Con@Home panel with several of the creatives behind the film. Early on, both Snyders discussed how they formed the idea for Army of Thieves, with Deborah especially mentioning how the new mixture of genres appealed to her. After all, zombies exist in this world, but they aren't a huge part of the plot. "Who's done a prequel where it's a different genre film?" she said. "Because to me, this is more [of a] romantic-comedy heist film than anything else." This might not be what fans expected, but it certainly sounds interesting.

Army of Thieves Cast

Army of the Dead felt like a breath of fresh air because it combined a heist with zombies. It sounds like Army of Thieves will continue this genre-bending idea, though instead of putting more focus on zombies, it'll be more romantic. As the newly-released Army of Thieves trailer hinted, sparks will fly between Dieter and Emmanuel's Gwendoline; she recruits him for a mission in Europe, and in between all the planning and safecracking, there will be some rom-com elements to enjoy.

Additional projects set within this world that are on the way include the anime prequel Army of the Dead: Lost Vegas and an Army of the Dead 2. Whether they too will try to play with genres remains to be seen, but it's a formula that so far seems to be working for the franchise. Army of Thieves is already drumming up excitement because of its focus on Dieter, and the trailer suggests it will introduce several other fun characters as well. Hopefully the next thing Netflix will reveal about it is the release date.

More: Army Of The Dead's Prequel Will Revive The Movie's Best Character

Source: Comic-Con International