There’s absolutely nothing wrong with a by-the-numbers sequel if it provides enough familiar entertainment to appeal to fans of the previous installment while simultaneously bringing in new ones, with 2019’s Zombieland: Double Tap almost the textbook definition of how to craft a solid-if-unspectacular successor to a wildly popular original.
It took an entire decade to come together, but reuniting audiences with Woody Harrelson’s Tallahassee, Jesse Eisenberg’s Columbus, Emma Stone’s Wichita, and Abigail Breslin’s Little Rock delivered exactly as promised. Reviews weren’t as strong as those enjoyed by Zombieland, with the second chapter’s Rotten Tomatoes score dropping from 89 percent to 68, while it only made $20 million more at the box office, despite costing twice as much to produce.
It’s basically the most reliable formula for churning out sequels that you can imagine, then, with our heroes disbanded for much of the story before reuniting for a climactic showdown, all while zany new supporting characters and heightened threats are introduced to try and freshen things up. Double Tap isn’t a bad movie, but it’s an exceedingly safe one nonetheless, which is both a positive and a negative.
Netflix subscribers have been having a blast basking in the blood and guts, though, with FlixPatrol revealing that Zombieland 2 has become the ninth most-watched title on the streaming service’s global watch-list by crashing straight into the Top 10 in 21 nations around the globe. If the creative team gets their way, the threequel should be with us around 2029, so let’s hope the gang decides to live up to their promise of reuniting every decade.