The first ZOMBIELAND was released on October 2, 2009, and ten years later the sequel ZOMBIELAND: DOUBLE TAP will be arriving in theatres. A ten year break between films wasn't intentional, director Ruben Fleischer told Entertainment Weekly that a sequel didn't come along sooner because
I think we all wanted to stretch our legs a little bit and try different things. I think we were all excited to do other stuff. But, the other thing is, we just couldn’t figure out the right story to tell. It took a minute to get a story that we all felt was worthy, to come back to Zombieland for. We all have so much love for the original. So, we held ourselves to a really high standard as far as making sure that, if we were going to make a sequel, that it be at least as good, if not better, than the original. And that ultimately all comes down to the script. So, we were all demanding and discerning to make sure the story was one that was worth getting the gang back together. Sometimes it does take time to get that right."
Now that a sequel has finally been made, fans probably shouldn't have their hopes high that it will be followed by a ZOMBIELAND 3 any time soon, even if ZOMBIELAND: DOUBLE TAP does well at the box office. It seems the idea of sticking to a "one ZOMBIELAND movie every 10 years" pattern is very appealing to some of the team involved with these films. Fleischer said,
I think we all had so much fun making this one, we’d be really lucky to get to return to Zombieland. Although, I will say, Emma Stone said she thought it would be fun if we did one of these every 10 years. Knowing that Woody Harrelson's just the healthiest guy there is, he’s going to outlive all of us, and so we can just keep doing them every 10 years, ‘til the end of time. … I can’t imagine a better way to look forward to my future than knowing that every 10 years I get to hang out with those guys and make a movie with them again."
Directed by Fleischer from a screenplay by Dave Callaham and the original film's writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, ZOMBIELAND: DOUBLE TAP stars returning leads Woody Harrelson, Emma Stone, Jesse Eisenberg, and Abigail Breslin, along with new additions Zoey Deutch, Avan Jogia, Rosario Dawson, Luke Wilson, and Thomas Middleditch.
The long-awaited sequel reaches theatres on October 18th.