Why Dawn Of The Dead 2 Never Happened

Before Army of the Dead, Zack Snyder brought a remake of George A. Romero’s classic Dawn of the Dead to the big screen, and fans have wondered for years why Dawn of the Dead 2 never happened. Zack Snyder has become one of the most polarizing directors in recent years, thanks to his work on movies based on comic books and graphic novels and some original works as well. Although he’s best known for movies like Watchmen, Man of Steel, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, and Justice League, Snyder has also covered other realms and genres – and his first movie was actually a horror one.

In 2004, Snyder shared with the world his take on Romero’s 1978 horror classic Dawn of the Dead, with a script written by James Gunn and starring Sarah Polley, Ving Rhames, Jake Weber, and Mekhi Phifer. Dawn of the Dead is set in Milwaukee, where a group of survivors takes refuge in an upscale suburban shopping mall amidst the zombie apocalypse. The movie was a big box office hit and got mostly positive reviews, with many critics considering it an improvement over Romero’s classic, and calling it Snyder’s finest work. Dawn of the Dead is also considered among the best horror remakes in modern cinema, which is why many fans have wondered why there hasn’t been a sequel, and if a certain Snyder movie also about zombies is secretly a sequel to it.

Dawn of the Dead was developed in hopes to revive the interest in the zombie genre, which at the time was dormant as titles like The Walking Dead TV series hadn’t happened yet, and it succeeded in doing exactly that. The movie has been credited as igniting the zombie craze from which many other movies and TV shows benefitted. Dawn of the Dead has also built its own fanbase, which was left wanting a sequel, more so as the movie’s ending left the fate of the surviving group members unknown, but Dawn of the Dead 2 never happened. Although Snyder hasn’t given a reason for a second Dawn of the Dead movie not happening, it most likely has to do with how busy he has been ever since, as he went on to make 300 in 2006 and Watchmen in 2009, and released a movie almost every year between 2010 and 2017, with his work in DC’s Extended Universe beginning in 2013.

Now, Snyder returned to the zombie genre in 2021 with Army of the Dead, a zombie heist movie starring Dave Bautista, Ella Purnell, Omari Hardwick, Ana de la Reguera, Theo Rossi, and Matthias Schweighöfer, among many others. Army of the Dead follows a group of mercenaries who come together to break into the zombie-infested quarantine zone to retrieve millions of dollars sitting in a vault beneath the strip, all this before the city is nuked by the government in 32 hours. Army of the Dead was well received by the audience though critics have given it mixed reviews, and it made viewers wonder if this was a secret sequel to Dawn of the Dead. Snyder has already explained that, while he developed Army of the Dead after Dawn of the Dead, it was never meant to be a sequel, and he needed another origin story in order to make it work. Army of the Dead, then, is not the second part of Dawn of the Dead, and is instead considered a “spiritual successor”.

It’s highly unlikely that Dawn of the Dead 2 will happen now, as many years have passed since the first movie was released and the stories wouldn’t connect as smoothly as they could have had it happened shortly after the first one came out. This doesn’t mean that fans will be left without more zombie movies by Zack Snyder, as a prequel movie titled Army of Thieves and an animated series titled Army of the Dead: Lost Vegas are already set to be released on Netflix.

About The Author

Adrienne Tyler
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Adrienne Tyler is a features writer for Screen Rant. She is an Audiovisual Communication graduate who wanted to be a filmmaker, but life had other plans (and it turned out great). Prior to Screen Rant, she wrote for Pop Wrapped, 4 Your Excitement (4YE), and D20Crit, where she was also a regular guest at Netfreaks podcast. She was also a contributor for FanSided’s BamSmackPow and 1428 Elm. Adrienne is very into films and she enjoys a bit of everything: from superhero films to heartbreaking dramas, to low-budget horror films. Every time she manages to commit to a TV show without getting bored, an angel gets its wings.

When she’s not writing, you can find her trying to learn a new language, watching hockey (go Avs!), or wondering what life would have been like had Pushing Daisies, Firefly, and Limitless not been cancelled. Breakfast food is life and coffee is what makes the world go round.

Guillermo del Toro said “hi” to her once. It was great.

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