Zack Snyder announces Army of the Dead May premiere date

Zack Snyder has announced a May 21 premiere for Army of the Dead, as well as a teaser for his zombie heist movie.

"Survivors take all. #ArmyOfTheDead on @Netflix May 21. Teaser this Thursday," the director tweeted Sunday.

In an interview with EW in January, Snyder described his upcoming feature as "a full-blown, balls-to-the-wall zombie heist movie."

Snyder got the idea for his monster genre mash-up shortly after finishing his 2004 remake of George A. Romero's classic Dawn of the Dead. In Army of the Dead, a plague has been released from Nevada's secretive Area 51 military base. The U.S. government has managed to contain the outbreak by building a wall around an overrun Sin City. But there's still all that cash in zombie-infested casinos, if only somebody is brave (or dumb) enough to try to go and get it.

The idea languished in development at Warner Bros. for years, until Netflix scooped it up, Snyder said. The streamer was so head over heels for it that it also set a four-hour animated prequel series and a prequel film directed by and starring Matthias Schweighöfer.

Army of the Dead follows a group of mercenaries who attempt a heist at a Las Vegas casino, with Dave Bautista leading the charge as Scott Ward. The cast also features Schweighöfer, Ella Purnell, Ana de la Reguera, Garret Dillahunt, Raúl Castillo, Omari Hardwick, and Tig Notaro, who's replacing Chris D'Elia as the rebranded sarcastic helicopter-pilot, Marianne Peters.

Ahead of the film's release, Snyder's highly anticipated, R-rated Justice League cut will premiere March 18 on HBO Max.

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