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 joined the list.
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of Thieves remains the only supplementary story to have arrived, while mooted follow-up Planet of the Dead has been superseded by the two-part Rebel Moon.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 members from the feature, there were plenty of new additions set to join 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…?