Army of Thieves Is Zack Snyder’s Zombie-less Army of the Dead Prequel

You know what everyone thought was the biggest problem with Army of the Dead? Not the bland characters or over-long runtime. It was definitely the zombies. That’s why we should all be glad to see that the first part of Zack Snyder and Netflix’s plan to expand the film into a franchise is a prequel heist film that doesn’t involve zombies at all. Zack Snyder’s Army of Thieves, a prequel film about safecracker Ludwig Dieter (Matthias Schweighöfer), got its first look today with a few images and a plot description that is entirely devoid of zombies.

Given the fact that the most heralded part of Army of the Dead was the opening few moments that recapped the downfall of Vegas, one might have assumed that a prequel film would take us through that action, but instead Army of Thieves focuses on Dieter and how he became the best safecracker in the world. While working as a small-town bank teller, Dieter is recruited by a mysterious woman who tasks him and a group of other thieves with robbing a series of famous safes across Europe. It actually sounds like a cool concept for a fun little film, but being tied to Army of the Dead puts a lot of weight on it.

The film was written by Shay Hatten and Snyder, who partnered for Army of the Dead, but this one will be directed by Schweighöfer himself. This won’t be the first time he’s directed a film, but all his others are German movies with a heavy focus on comedies. The film will also star Nathalie Emmanuel, Ruby O. Fee, Stuart Martin, Guz Khan, Jonathan Cohen, and Noémie Nakai.

This isn’t the only spin-off Army of the Dead is receiving. A prequel animated series is already in the works that will indeed have zombies as it tells the story of how the military developed the zombie super soldier that started the outbreak.