The Walking Dead ’s drama is currently the talk of the zombie genre , but think back to the days when cannibal corpses were actually funny. A year before walkers set their sights on the city of Atlanta, they were busy decimating much more feasible locations. Zombieland, released in 2009, told the story of an theme park trip gone wrong. The film impressed both critics and the box office, leading some to call for a sequel.
Years went by and Zombieland 2 was discussed extensively , but nothing ever came into fruition. The sequel had the backing of all of the film’s leads - Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin - but interest began to fade as the movie’s relevance evaporated with each passing month. Then Amazon went and bought the rights, leading to a filmed television pilot with all new actors. Unfortunately, it didn’t test well, and more Zombieland action was scrapped once again.
But now in 2016, there is new hope! Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, the writers of the original Zombieland, happened to pen another recent box office hit. It goes by the name of Deadpool, and now that the Marvel spin-off is well on its way to becoming the highest grossing rated R film of all-time , people want to know what’s up with that Zombieland sequel again. Turns out that just like the infected, the idea of Zombieland 2 isn’t completely dead.
Reese and Wernick recently sat down for an interview on The Q&A podcast (h/t JoBlo ), where they were asked about the possibility of Zombieland 2. Here’s what Reese had to say:
“It’s actually still in development at Sony, they’ve had a couple writers take a crack at it, we’re still exec producers and we’re guiding and helping where we can and I think there’s still very much talk about it, but I think it has to be right. I think all the actors and Ruben [Fleischer], all feel like there’s no reason to do it again if we’re not getting it exactly right.”
So there it is - good news and bad news. The good news is that Zombieland 2 is actually still a thing, and people are actively working on making it a reality. The bad news… it won’t happen unless it’s 100 percent perfect. And we all know how picky actors can be.
Make of that what you will. Either way, it’s exciting to know that Columbus, Tallahassee, Wichita and Little Rock may be returning to the big screen sometime in the near future. We’ll keep you updated on this story as it progresses.
