Ruben Fleischer teases the dangerous new zombies of Zombieland: Double Tap

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Although ZOMBIELAND was a critical and commercial success upon its release in 2009, it's taken a decade before director Ruben Fleischer and screenwriter's Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick were able to get the old gang back together for a sequel. The upcoming ZOMBIELAND: DOUBLE TAP will reunite us with Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg), Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson), Wichita (Emma Stone), and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin) as we discover what they've been up to over the past ten years during the zombie apocalypse.

During an interview with Fandango, ZOMBIELAND: DOUBLE TAP director Ruben Fleischer teased that our heroes will be encountering a new and more dangerous form of zombie.

I think our heroes are a little complacent because the zombies don't present much of a challenge anymore. They've started to categorize them into different groups. There's ones that they call Homers, who are kind of the dumber zombies. There are the Ninjas who are a little bit more crafty and they might sneak up on you. And then there's the Hawkings, who are smarter zombies. Then there's a new kind of zombie that they haven't met before called a T-800, a name for the infamous Terminator. These T-800s are much more dangerous, threatening form of zombie. For the first time, I think our heroes feel like they're in true jeopardy because of this newly evolved form of zombie.

If Arnold Schwarzenegger makes a zombie cameo in the film I'm going to lose my shit. In addition to teasing new zombies, Ruben Fleischer also touched upon a few of the new characters featured in the sequel, including Rosario Dawson's Nevada. "Well, among other things in this movie, Tallahassee (Harrelson) is looking for a little bit of love, I think. So when he comes across Rosario's character who's called Nevada, she's kind of a true equal to him," Fleischer explained. "She's a tough badass zombie killer in her own right. They both share a love for Elvis Presley, and she's also a lone wolf. She doesn't want to be tied down. So they have a real kind of instant attraction. Also, there's a bit of a standoff between them as well. She was so great to work with. She just fits right into the whole group. She feels so good in the movie."

The official synopsis for ZOMBIELAND: DOUBLE TAP:

A decade after Zombieland became a hit film and a cult classic, the lead cast (Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Abigail Breslin, and Emma Stone) have reunited with director Ruben Fleischer (Venom) and the original writers Rhett Reese & Paul Wernick (Deadpool) for Zombieland 2: Double Tap. In the sequel, written by Rhett Reese & Paul Wernick and Dave Callaham, through comic mayhem that stretches from the White House and through the heartland, these four slayers must face off against the many new kinds of zombies that have evolved since the first movie, as well as some new human survivors. But most of all, they have to face the growing pains of their own snarky, makeshift family.

ZOMBIELAND: DOUBLE TAP will hit theaters on October 18, 2019.