As we know, Chris D'Elia was originally cast as smartass pilot Peters in Army of the Dead, but after a series of damning sexual misconduct allegations were made against the actor, director Zack Snyder decided to replace him in the role with fellow stand-up comic Tig Notaro.
Unfortunately, D'Elia had already shot all of his scenes (the entire movie was in the can), which meant that Snyder had to digitally remove him from the film and insert Notaro.
It's pretty seamlessly accomplished (it's very difficult to spot unless you happen to be looking out for it), but it was not cheap. However, despite the elevated costs (Snyder puts it at "a few million"), the filmmaker says it was a "fairly easy" decision to make in light of the serious accusations that continued to pile up.
“It was an expensive one, that’s for sure,” adds producer Deborah Snyder. “It was like the cost of our little German movie,” she says, referring to the upcoming Army of Thieves prequel.
SPOILERS follow
Notaro turned out to be a major highlight of Army of the Dead, but, along with most of the main characters, Peters doesn't make it to the end credits. During a recent interview with CBR, Notaro revealed that she actually campaigned for her character to survive.
"When I talked to Zack afterwards, I really tried to make a case for why my character didn't have to die, or maybe I could have lived through that!" she said. "So yeah, I was sad to find out that that was the end of me. [laughs] But I still feel like a zombie could come over and bite me and bring me back to zombie life. I don't know how zombies work, but let's hope that that's an option."
Army of the Dead is now streaming on Netflix. Tell us, have you watched it yet? If so, what did you think?