Next Army Of The Dead Prequel Will Totally Change Snyder’s Zombie Universe

Next Army Of The Dead Prequel Will Totally Change Snyder's Zombie Universe

The animated series Army of the Dead: Lost Vegas will continue Zack Snyder’s zombie universe, and its reveals could change a lot for the franchise.

The upcoming animated series Army of the Dead: Lost Vegas could provide the biggest reveals in Zack Snyder’s Army of the Dead universe, changing it forever. Zack Snyder’s zombie-populated Netflix franchise kicked off with 2021’s Army of the Dead, with a prequel, Army of Thieves, arriving later that year. Using the backbone of heist movies, the Army of the Dead series introduced some new elements into the zombie genre.

In Army of the Dead, Las Vegas finds itself overtaken by a sudden outbreak of zombies, and the failure to stop them leads to the city being sealed off from the world. Later, a team of mercenaries led by Scott Ward (Dave Bautista) is hired to enter the city to retrieve $200 million from the casino vault of Bly Tanaka (Hiroyuki Sanada). With Las Vegas scheduled to be destroyed in an impending nuclear strike, it’s a race against the clock to pull off the heist while avoiding a very different kind of zombie menace.

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A sequel to Army of the Dead with the apocalyptic-sounding title Planet of the Dead in the works, but the franchise’s next installment will be Army of the Dead: Lost Vegas. The series will be set before the zombie rampage began and reportedly comprise six episodes. What makes Lost Vegas different from most third entries in a series is that the specifics of how the franchise has unfolded has tasked it with more storytelling responsibility than usual. As a side effect of that, it’s also left Lost Vegas in the position to be an unexpectedly pivotal prequel, as well.

Army Of The Dead Movies Have Revealed Little Of The Zombie Origins

Zeus in Army of the Dead

While Army of the Dead was the genesis of Snyder’s zombie universe, there was relatively little that it unambiguously revealed about it. The main starting point of the film was establishing Zeus (Richard Cetrone) and the Alphas as a separate kind of more intelligent zombies. Army of the Dead further revealed only a bite from Zeus leads to Alpha zombie transformation, and also showed that Zeus and the Alpha Queen (Athena Perample) could procreate with the latter’s pregnancy.

While Army of the Dead made teases of aliens and time loops, within the context of the actual movie, they were just that. The prequel Army of Thieves was also more centered on the first heist of safecracker Dieter (Matthias Schweighöfer) with the Las Vegas zombie outbreak in the background. With two movies already released, the Army of the Dead franchise is a curious one in that the origins of the zombies that form its basis are still fairly unexplored. In fact, most of what is even known about them comes from Snyder himself.

Most Army Of The Dead Shared Universe Reveals Come From Zack Snyder

Zack Snyder - Army of the Dead

When it comes to the nuts and bolts of the Army of the Dead universe, Zack Snyder himself has been the main source of information. During the Army of the Dead press tour, Snyder alluded to the involvement of aliens and the nature of the mysterious time loop in far greater detail than the film itself does. Snyder’s teases gave viewers a measurable idea of the role Area 51 played in the creation of Zeus, the robot zombies, visits by extraterrestrial visitors decades earlier.

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Snyder was also prominent in the Army of Thieves press tour alongside Deborah Snyder, Matthias Schweighöfer, and the film’s cast. Despite Dieter’s apparent death under the wrath of Zeus in Army of the Dead seemingly leaving little to no room for a return, Snyder essentially confirmed that the safecracker remains alive. Without spoiling the details of it, Snyder once again referenced the time loop proposed by Army of the Dead’s Vanderohe, without giving a clear definition of what it is or the definitive outcome of it for Dieter. Snyder has been considerably more open about details of the Army of the Dead franchise than either of the first two films. Naturally, he’s avoided giving outright confirmation to any speculation the movies or his teases have inspired, and this has left many fan theories to percolate.

Army Of The Dead: Lost Vegas Will Change Snyder’s Universe

Army Of The Dead Zombie Bachelorette Party

Because of how close to the vest Army of the Dead and Army of Thieves played with details of the world, Army of the Dead: Lost Vegas is in a significant position. As the third entry in the Army of the Dead shared universe while chronologically being the first, most of the heavy lifting of the franchise’s world-building falls to it. It’ll also be doing so within the parameters of six episodes, which suggests just how packed Lost Vegas is going to be.

While the runtime of each episode isn’t known, Army of the Dead: Lost Vegas is set to fill viewers in on the lingering questions raised by the first two movies. The involvement of Area 51 and the experimentation that led to Zeus becoming the first Alpha are sure to be major components of Lost Vegas. Not only that, but the role of aliens, the initial failed attempt to stop the zombie spread in the Las Vegas outbreak, and the creation of Army of the Dead’s robot zombies also are likely to feature just as prominently. With so much exposition withheld in Army of the Dead and Army of Thieves, Lost Vegas being a series works to the franchise’s advantage. With six episodes to work with, Lost Vegas is fully prepped to finally fully explain the origins of the zombies and everything connected to them.

If there’s one thing that Army of the Dead displayed right from the start, it’s the tonal spectrum its universe has. Army of the Dead merged a heist movie with a localized zombie plague, and mere months later, Army of Thieves flipped its predecessor’s zombie movie formula within the same world. Lost Vegas, as the connective tissue of the whole franchise, has the task of taking viewers all the way down the rabbit hole. With as much as it has to do in six episodes, Army of the Dead: Lost Vegas will be where the Army of the Dead franchise finally lays all its cards on the table.

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About The Author

Brad Curran
(681 Articles Published)

Growing up, Brad developed an innate love of movies and storytelling, and was instantly enamored with the world of adventure while following the exploits of Indiana Jones, Japanese kaiju, and superheroes. Today, Brad channels his thoughts on all manner of movies, from comic book films, sci-fi thrillers, comedies, and everything in between through his writings on Screen Rant. Brad also offers philosophical musings on martial arts and the filmographies of everyone from Jackie Chan to Donnie Yen on Kung Fu Kingdom, where he’s also had the privilege of interviewing many of the world’s great stunt professionals, and hearing plenty of gripping stories on injuries incurred in their line of work and the intricacies of designing the acts of death defiance he first thrilled to as a youngster. When he’s not writing, Brad enjoys going on a ride with the latest action hit or Netflix original, though he’s also known to just pop in “The Room” from time to time. Follow Brad on Twitter @BradCurran.

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