It’s Dave Bautista and pals vs. zombie horde in Army of the Dead

Fresh off the successful release of Zack Snyder’s Justice League, we’ll soon be getting the director’s latest project: Army of the Dead, about a group of mercenaries that attempts a heist in a zombie-ridden Las Vegas. In a sense, Snyder has come full circle. His directorial debut was 2008’s Dawn of the Dead, an entertaining reboot of the original George Romero classic from 1978.

Army of the Dead started out as a joint project between Universal Studios and Warner Bros. back in 2007. But like so many films, it got stuck in development hell until Zack Snyder signed on as director in 2019. Netflix picked up the distribution rights from Warner Bros. soon after.

Per the official premise:

Army of the Dead takes place following a zombie outbreak that has left Las Vegas in ruins and walled off from the rest of the world. When Scott Ward (Dave Bautista), a displaced Vegas local, former zombie war hero who’s now flipping burgers on the outskirts of the town he now calls home, is approached by casino boss Bly Tanaka (Hiroyuki Sanada), it’s with the ultimate proposition: Break into the zombie-infested quarantine zone to retrieve $200 million sitting in a vault beneath the strip before the city is nuked by the government in 32 hours. Driven by the hope that the payoff could help pave the way to a reconciliation with his estranged daughter Kate (Ella Purnell), Ward takes on the challenge, assembling a ragtag team of experts for the heist.

They include Maria Cruz (Ana de la Reguera), an ace mechanic and Ward’s old friend; Vanderohe (Omari Hardwick), a zombie killing machine; Marianne Peters (Tig Notaro), a cynical helicopter pilot; Mikey Guzman (Raúl Castillo), a go-for-broke influencer and Chambers (Samantha Win), his ride-or-die; Martin (Garret Dillahunt), the casino’s head of security; a badass warrior known as the Coyote (Nora Arnezeder) who recruits Burt Cummings (Theo Rossi), a slimy security guard; and a brilliant German safe cracker named Dieter (Matthias Schweighöfer). Scott finds an unexpected emotional hurdle when Kate joins the expedition to search for Geeta (Huma S. Qureshi), a mother who’s gone missing inside the city. With a ticking clock, a notoriously impenetrable vault, and a smarter, faster horde of Alpha zombies closing in, only one thing’s for certain in the greatest heist ever attempted: survivors take all.

Notaro replaced comedian/actor Chris D’Elia late in the project, on the heels of a number of sexual misconduct allegations against the comedian. This required reshooting some scenes with an acting partner, which were then inserted into the film; Notaro was also inserted into several scenes via digital compositing. She has been fantastic on Star Trek: Discovery, and it will be interesting to see how she fares in Army of the Dead.

The trailer is entertaining, with Kenny Rogers’ “The Gambler” as a musical backdrop, just to set the mood. “There’s 200 million dollars in a vault beneath the Strip,” Tanaka tells Ward and his team. “This should be a simple in and out.” Of course, nothing is ever simple. Vegas is swarming with zombies—faster, smarter zombies, not the classic Romero variety. They’re smart enough to organize, and that, plus their far superior numbers, doesn’t bode well for our human protagonists. (The house, after all, always wins.) But we are definitely on board for the Zombie Elvis and zombie tiger.

Army of the Dead debuts in select theaters and on Netflix on May 21, 2021. If this is as much fun as Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead—and it looks like it could be—Army of Dead should be a huge success. There are already plans for a prequel film focusing on the character Ludwig Dieter (played by Matthias Schweighöfer) and an anime-inspired TV series, Army of the Dead: Las Vegas.

Listing image by Netflix