UPDATE: Variety is now reporting that Luke Wilson is the newest addition to the cast, though it isn't known what his role will be. It'd be a fun post-apocalyptic in-joke if he's one of the folks still left in Washington DC, though. Maybe the smartest one left alive?
It's been ten years and many false starts, but the sequel to Zombieland is finally happening. The original was arguably the big break for Deadpool screenwriters Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, and the debut feature of Venom director Ruben Fleischer. At the time the highest grossing zombie movie ever, it depicted the adventures of college-student Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg), whose obsessive list of rules to survive a zombie apocalypse kept him alive. The film also featured a Twinkie-obsessed zombie-killer named Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson) and two con-artist sisters (Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin). It also notably featured Bill Murray as himself, gearing up in a Ghostbusters costume and getting shot in the head. So what do we know about the follow-up?
WHO'S IN IT?
All four original main characters (Eisenberg, Harrelson, Stone, and Breslin) are set to return, as revealed in a Facebook ten-year challenge meme. The image also reveals that the film's official title is Zombieland: Double Tap. And Tallahassee has a new hat! While Breslin is now an adult, they don't otherwise look to have changed much overall in a decade.
Also confirmed: Zoey Deutch, Avan Jogia as a bad-boy musician, and Rosario Dawson. In keeping with the movie's naming convention of characters' hometowns, they'll be playing people named Madison, Berkeley, and Nevada, respectively.
Image: HBO
Variety is reporting that Thomas Middleditch, of Silicon Valley and those omnipresent Verizon ads that loosely trade on his Silicon Valley fame, is the latest to join the cast. There are no details about his character thus far, but if Zombieland naming tradition holds, he'll probably play somebody named "Canada." There are rumors that Bill Murray might return in some form, and bring Dan Aykroyd along for the ride, but these have not been officially confirmed.WHO'S BEHIND THE CAMERA?
The original team of Reese and Wernick wrote the sequel, and Fleischer is back to direct, a commitment that will keep him (though not Harrelson, apparently) from working on Venom 2.
WHAT'S THE PLOT?
"Through comic mayhem that stretches from the White House and through the heartland, the Zombie slayers must face off against many new kinds of zombies that have evolved since the first movie, as well as some new human survivors. But most of all, they have to face the growing pains of their own snarky, makeshift family."
The Walking Dead's ninth season visited a post-apocalyptic Washington D.C. last year, as did Tenacious D. We'd venture a guess this will be a mixture of both those tones. Given Wernick and Reese's general tendencies, you can likely expect snarky references to real-world politics and situations.
WHAT ABOUT THE ZOMBIELAND TV SERIES?
A pilot was made and released on Amazon, with all-new actors in the roles. The new movie makes that no longer canon.WHEN'S IT OUT?
October 11, 2019 is the official release date as of this writing.Images: Sony