Zack Snyder Breaks Down That ‘Army of the Dead’ Zombie Baby: ‘The Ultimate Evolution’

Zack Snyder’s “Army of the Dead” is just the beginning of a Netflix movie and television franchise that will explore the world of a zombie outbreak, and one of the most eyebrow-raising surprises of this world is that the undead are procreating. One of Snyder’s big surprises in “Army of the Dead” is the reveal of a zombie baby, which undead king Zeus pulls from the decapitated body of his queen lover. Was the baby a human fetus that got turned into a zombie when the mother got bit? Or is it just the product of zombie sex? Snyder recently told Esquire he leans more toward the latter.

“I believe that some zombie love happened, some sweet zombie lovemaking. I don’t know if it was sweet. It was probably pretty aggressive,” Snyder said. “My theory is that the zombies in our movie are working toward not needing a human host to procreate their species, if you will. That’s the ultimate evolution. They’re like a better us. I think that’s the fun genre part of it. They’re no longer destroying their environment. They’re not fighting with each other. They’re less bad for everybody. They’re less toxic. Unless you cross them, and then, well, it’s not that good.”

More from IndieWire

• Dave Bautista Has One Dream Role He Wants to Play More Than Bane: Ernest Hemingway

• 'Army of the Dead' Reshoots: Ana de la Reguera Is the Only Actor Who Filmed with Tig Notaro

Snyder said his team “debated for a while” the inclusion of the zombie fetus, adding, “But as far as I was concerned, the zombie baby was cool for a variety of reasons, and one of them was that it tests you, it pushes you. You think you know what the genre is. And that’s the cool thing about the movie — I wanted to have a shorthand with the audience, and go, ‘You know what? You guys know this stuff, right?’ Even when Dieter says, ‘How exactly do we do the killing?’ Scott’s like, ‘Really?’ That’s the audience. That’s like your friend saying, ‘How do they kill the zombies?’ And you’re like, ‘Really? You’re going to ask that? You shoot them in the head, obviously. Are we going to have this conversation?'”

Snyder continued, “And so I feel like that’s the thing that’s interesting about the genre, is that we are so down the road with it. We’ve had what, 10 years or 11 years of ‘The Walking Dead?’ That’s unbelievable. How many hours of zombie mayhem is that? That’s so much content. Not to mention the countless films. And I’m just talking between ‘Dawn of the Dead’ and now, for me. What’s the wrinkle? How can we throw a wrench in the genre a little bit?”

Whether or not Snyder will continue to explore zombie procreation as the franchise continues remains to be seen. It’s already confirmed “Army of the Dead” is getting a prequel movie centered on the backstory of Matthias Schweighöfer’s safecracker character Ludwig Dieter, and then there’s an animated prequel series that will explain the origins of the zombie pandemic. Will the film get a proper sequel? Snyder left a big door open with his ending, so all signs point to yes as long as the film is a Netflix hit.

“Army of the Dead” is now streaming on Netflix.

Best of IndieWire

• 50 Essential United Artists Movies Amazon Will Own in MGM Deal

• Even the Little Movies Are Noisy: Action and Adventure Still Lead the Speciality Box Office

• The 40 Best Documentaries of the 21st Century

Sign up for Indiewire's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.