History is littered with franchises and would-be universes that tried to run before they could walk, only for those plans to gradually be abandoned as the property slips into purgatory. Despite being backed by the might of Netflix, Zack Snyder’s Army of the Dead might have ed the list. 1l3s6c

The zombie action blockbuster became one of the streaming service’s biggest-ever original movies when it was first released, and ambitious expansion plans were announced for sequels, spin-offs, and offshoots galore. Since then, Army of Thieves remains the only supplementary story to have arrived, while mooted follow-up Planet of the Dead has been superseded by the two-part Rebel Moon.

There was also animated companion series Army of the Dead: Lost Vegas, which was announced in September of 2020 with Snyder directing two episodes and executive producing, and animation veteran Jay Olivia set as showrunner. As well as many prominent cast from the feature, there were plenty of new additions set to the saga, too.

Jena Malone, Anya Chalotra, Christian Slater, Joe Manganiello, Vanessa Hudgens, Monica Barbaro, Harry Lennix, and Ross Butler were among the names set to star alongside established zombie-fighters Dave Bautista, Omari Hardwick, Tig Notaro, Ella Purnell, and Ana de la Reguera, but Snyder may have just made it public that Lost Vegas is dead and buried in the most off-handed fashion possible.

When confirming that Army of the Dead and Rebel Moon share a universe, he referred to it in the past tense as “the Army of the Dead animated series that we never did.” That’s hardly an encouraging way to talk about it, but at least we’ve still got Twilight of the Gods, right? Right…?

In 2021, Zack Snyder was on a comeback tour. His four-hour Justice League had silenced the haters by unambiguously being an improvement on Joss Whedon’s dreadful theatrical cut, and his Las Vegas-set Army of the Dead exploded onto Netflix to top the charts and become the eighth biggest original movie the streaming giant had ever produced.

All that came with promises that Snyder’s curious zombie-infested world would soon be expanded in various ways. The first of these – heist caper Army of Thieves – duly arrived later, though we haven’t heard much about anime series Lost Vegas and the sequel Planet of the Dead.

Snyder has at least addressed the anime’s absence. Speaking with The Nerd Queens on YouTube, the director itted there’d been behind-the-scenes problems:

“I will say that there’s been a slight stall on the Lost Vegas animated thing. For technical reasons, it went off the rail a little bit.” 

The anime is said to reveal the story of Dave Bautista’s character during the initial zombie attack, along with shedding some light on the undead’s apparent extraterrestrial origins, while giving us answers on why some of them appeared to be robots. Bautista, Ana de la Reguera, Ella Purnell, Tig Notaro, and Omari Hardwick will all voice their characters, so we’re still hopeful it’ll emerge at some point.

For the moment, Snyder’s priorities are his space opera epic Rebel Moon, which will similarly consist of movies, animated series, and apparently a video game. Here’s hoping Army of the Dead doesn’t end up forgotten amidst all the outer space action.

Zack Snyder’s Army of the Dead franchise may have only kicked off in May of this year when the filmmaker’s apocalyptic action blockbuster burst onto the scene to become one of Netflix’s ten most-watched original movies ever, but the franchise is already gaining a serious head of steam.

It was confirmed that a direct sequel was in the works when Snyder signed his exclusive development deal with the streamer, which he’s since revealed is going by the working title Planet of the Dead. On top of that, prequel Army of Thieves delivered a light and breezy heist caper with romantic comedy elements, showcasing that the world has plenty of potential for new stories outside of zombie mayhem.

Animated companion series Army of the Dead: Lost Vegas is scheduled for an early 2022 release, and Netflix have released the first broad synopsis for the show, which you can read below.

“The animated origin story of Scott (Dave Bautista) and his rescue crew during the initial fall of Vegas as they confront the mysterious source of the zombie outbreak.”

Army of the Dead: Lost Vegas will feature a mix of old and new faces, with returning stars Dave Bautista, Omari Hardwick, Tig Notaro, Ella Purnell and more being ed by the likes of Joe Manganiello, Vanessa Hudgens, Harry Lennix, Christian Slater and Jena Malone. Netflix loves to expand its in-house properties via animation, and we can’t wait to see what sort of undead carnage awaits.

We’re only one film and two and a half hours into Netflix’s expanded Army of the Dead universe, and already fans have a whole lot of questions they need answers to. How do zombies get each other pregnant? Why are there robot zombies that nobody notices? What does Area 51 have to do with it? Can there really be a time loop involved? All of these and more were posed during the apocalyptic blockbuster, but no resolutions were provided. Snyder is clearly hedging his bets that he’ll get to tackle these subplots eventually, and he’s evidently keen to stay in the Netflix business as well, having stuck around to produce and co-write animated series Twilight of the Gods, which will be directed by Jay Oliva, coincidentally the man responsible for developing and helming Army of the Dead‘s own 2D companion piece Lost Vegas, which hasn’t been given a locked-in debut date as of yet.