The prequel to Zack Snyder’s Army of the Dead seemed really odd given that it was a prequel to a zombie film that wouldn’t have any zombies. However, the first Army of Thieves teaser trailer shows that there will indeed be some zombies in the film, but they won’t play any major part. Army of Thieves tells the origin story of everyone’s favorite(?) safe cracker Dieter (Matthias Schweighöfer) in a time when the world was just getting comfortable with Vegas being a zombie compound, and as such, it will feature, at the very least, news clips of zombies.
Aside from those zombie news clips, the teaser trailer makes Army of Thieves look pretty different from Army of the Dead, with the humor cranked up even further and a plotline that seems to lean more into the heist aspect than the zombie film did. Also, it probably won’t feature any zombie childbirth. The film looks like it could be a fun little offshoot to a movie that was mostly a letdown aside from the first 10 minutes. The movie follows Dieter as he is recruited by a gang of thieves to help crack the world’s toughest safes across Europe. Joining Dieter in his safe-breaking antics will be a cast of infamous ne’er-do-wells played by Nathalie Emmanuel, Ruby O. Fee, Stuart Martin, Guz Khan, and Jonathan Cohen.
While Zack Snyder wrote the story alongside screenwriter Shay Hatten, he isn’t directing this film. Instead, Schweighöfer himself is hopping into the director’s chair. The actor has a few films and shows under his belt, but this will be his highest-profile picture by far.
This isn’t Netflix’s only spin-off of Army of the Dead as it works to turn this into a franchise that no one really wanted. The streamer and Snyder are working on an animated prequel series as well, though we haven’t heard much on it since its announcement. With how this film was surprisingly announced, Snyder may have even more up his sleeve if Netflix is willing to keep paying him, which it should be given the movie has already had 75 million viewers.
Alongside the Army of Thieves teaser trailer, Netflix also dropped a series of posters that feature Dieter standing around in a jacket. You can check them out below.
Army of Thieves will hit Netflix in fall 2021.
