Dawn of the Dead was Zack Snyder's first movie as a director and is still considered his best by many film fans. When Army of the Dead hit Netflix, it promised to be a return to form for the filmmaker, only for excitement to be dulled somewhat by a bizarre revelation.
Eagle-eyed fans noticed that some of the undead appeared to be robots, and Snyder has since confirmed the plague originated on another planet.
It's a weird direction to take a zombie franchise in and one the filmmaker planned to elaborate on in a now-scrapped animated prequel series, Army of the Dead: Lost Vegas, revolving around Dave Bautista's character. That's no longer happening, but Rebel Moon - Part One: A Child of Fire includes a nod to Snyder's planned extraterrestrial explanation.
"Rebel Moon and Army of the Dead definitely can exist in the same universe," he tells ComicBook.com (via SFFGazette.com). "I think I've said that, but there's a character in movie one, when they go into - I don't know if I've talked about this - when they go into the bar and there's a Xanadite, the Xanadite is that blue girl with glowing markings on her - she is directly from the Army animated series that we never finished."
"Where they go, where the zombie plague comes from, is a planet they call Xanadu - well, the scientists call it Xanadu because they're big fans of Olivia Newton-John - so they go to Xanadu and the Xanadites, basically where the zombie plague comes from, she's one of them," Snyder continues. "So there's an interdimensional thing they go through, so there is a chance of some weird mashup."
This is very weird and a suggestion Snyder is trying to create a shared world with his non-DC franchise (what his endgame is, if he even has one, remains to be seen).
Lost Vegas sounded like a fun time following its announcement, and we still don't know why Netflix pulled the plug on the spin-off. Army of Thieves served as a prequel, but there's been no word on a direct sequel to Army of the Dead since Snyder shifted focus to Rebel Moon.
"We did all the scripts and the animatics, and all the voices are recorded," Snyder previously said of the series. "So you could watch it, even in its crazy animatic form - you can watch the whole run."
With Snyder's Netflix projects drawing largely negative reviews, but strong viewership numbers, won't don't know exactly what's next for him and the streamer. Army of the Dead x Rebel Moon, perhaps? Time will tell.