Zack Snyder talks the zombie baby in Army of the Dead
Zack Snyder explains the thinking behind that zombie baby
Zack Snyder has talked more about the zombie baby in Army of the Dead. Spoilers to follow!
"I believe that some zombie love happened, some sweet zombie lovemaking. I don't know if it was sweet. It was probably pretty aggressive," Snyder told Esquire. "My theory is that the zombies in our movie are working toward not needing a human host to procreate their species, if you will. That's the ultimate evolution. They're like a better us. I think that's the fun genre part of it. They're no longer destroying their environment. They're not fighting with each other. They're less bad for everybody. They're less toxic. Unless you cross them, and then, well, it's not that good."
In Army of the Dead, there are two types of zombies – the slow, shuffling kind known as Shamblers, and a fast, strong, and intelligent group called Alphas. The original zombie, Zeus, is the zombie king, and after his queen's death, it's revealed that she was pregnant.
"We had a hell of a lot of fun asking ourselves all those questions. Even the zombie baby was a thing that we all debated for a while," Snyder added. "But as far as I was concerned, the zombie baby was cool for a variety of reasons, and one of them was that it tests you, it pushes you. You think you know what the genre is."
The director went on to talk about how much zombie content there is out there, questioning: "What's the wrinkle? How can we throw a wrench in the genre a little bit?"
Along with the baby, robot zombies can also be glimpsed in Army of the Dead. These machines were never acknowledged or explained in the film, but Snyder has teased that we'll learn more about the origins of the undead outbreak in the animated prequel series Army of the Dead: Lost Vegas. It's looking like there'll be an extra-terrestrial element to their history, with UFOs spotted in the sky in the film's opening minutes – and the convey transporting Zeus traveling from Area 51.
Army of the Dead is currently streaming on Netflix, with Lost Vegas on the way, and a prequel movie focusing on Matthias Schweighöfer's character Dieter, titled Army of Thieves, arriving later this year. In the meantime, check out the best Netflix movies to stream now, and see our ranking of the best Zack Snyder movies.
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I'm a Senior Entertainment Writer here at 12DOVE, covering all things film and TV for the site's Total Film and SFX sections. I previously worked on the Disney magazines team at Immediate Media, and also wrote on the CBeebies, MEGA!, and Star Wars Galaxy titles after graduating with a BA in English.