It was announced in October thatNight of the Living Deadwould get a sequel shambling our way, directed byNikyatu Jusu(Nanny). Now, the project has an official distributor–MGM has acquired the worldwide rights,according to a story in Deadline.
The sequel will be on the heels of Jusu’s directorial debut,Nanny,the first horror film to win Sundance’s Grand Jury Prize. There are no specifics to the sequel’s plot, when it will take place, or what it will be about, but it is evident that the sequel will be set in the zombie apocalypse, in a world that has been destroyed by zombies and a world where humans will have to build society back into something familiar, and where they will have to fear people a little more than the living dead–because you know what to expect with the dead. The living? Not as predictable in a zombie apocalypse.
This sequel looks to give the franchise new life, a franchise started by the zombie godfatherGeorge A. Romero.A question of if the zombies will be slow or if they will be fast-moving zombies, a laZack Snyder’sremake ofDawn of the Dead,remains to be seen, but zombies are, of course, another common factor in zombie films.
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Night of the Living Deadwas created byRomeroand released in 1968. The film, and Romero, are both given credit for launching the zombie genre of horror films and the template for how zombies are, what zombies need to do to survive, and how to kill them. The film holds the themes of hopelessness and having no way out, with the ending echoing those themes and being one of the most iconic endings in a horror film. Romero’s zombie film launched five sequels between 1978 and 2009:Dawn of the Dead,Day of the Dead,Land of the Dead,Diary of the Dead, andSurvival of the Dead.The newest sequel will be produced byChristine RomeroandTina Romeroof Sanibel Films;Jillian Apfelbaum,Tristen Tuckfield,andNic GordonatVillage Roadshow Pictures;Ryan Silbertof Origin Story;Andrew Childsfor Vertigo Entertainment; andJon MoneandRyan Shimazakiof Westbrook Studios.
There is no official release date for the sequel. Keep an eye on Collider for more details as they come out.
