Army of the Dead ended with the reveal that the zombie plague has spread across the globe. Throw in mentions of time loops, robotic versions of the undead, and teases that the virus might be alien in nature, and it's clear Zack Snyder doesn't have traditional plans for the Netflix franchise.
A sequel, Planet of the Dead, is in the works for the streaming service, and the filmmaker recently told Variety more about the direction he's thinking about taking that movie in. "Shay [Hatten] and I have been talking about the straight sequel to 'Army of the Dead' being possibly a sci-fi actioner with horror elements. So that’s a fun genre, probably with a heist at its center."
"I know exactly what I’d want to see in the sequel. We’re doing the animated series, which will come out next year," Snyder continued. "The animated series very much delves deeply into the 'why' of the zombie apocalypse and where the zombies come from exactly. I think the time loops, portals, doorways to other realms, things of that nature, are very much in play."
Talk then turned to Dieter's fate. We didn't actually see the character die, and given his increased popularity following the release of Army of Thieves, it sounds like there's a decent chance he could return.
"We were just talking about the three potential Dieter scenarios. One is he got murdered by Zeus and is laying dead in a hallway. The second is he got bitten by Zeus and is a scary alpha zombie running around somewhere in the Nevada desert. And the third is that he somehow negotiated, fought or something happened that Zeus was distracted and so he was not killed by Zeus," the director teases. "According to the time loop subtext of the movie, all three realities are possible."
"The one other clue is that 'Army of the Dead' as a genre, is obedient to genre tropes. The genre trope of not seeing a character die on screen is very much alive and well in 'Army of the Dead.' I would say by its cinematic design, it begs the question, whether or not he’s alive or dead."
We're certainly intrigued to see where things go from here, though with Rebel Moon on the horizon, we could be waiting a while for Planet of the Dead. A sci-fi action movie with some horror elements thrown in sounds like a unique zombie blockbuster, though we'd hope Snyder isn't getting a tad too ambitious by including too many complicated ideas (we're still baffled by those robots).
Stay tuned for updates.