The 2009 action comedy Zombieland hit at just the right time, on the cusp of the full-on zombie craze, and went on to make more than $100 million. So why haven't we seen that long-rumored sequel? Director Ruben Fleischer is here to explain.
In an interview with Collider, Fleischer says they actually started working on a script shortly after the first film opened—but they never really found a story they liked. The director has since moved on to try out some other genres, and says the likelihood of a Zombieland sequel is actually pretty slim.
Here are his comments, including a tease of what shape the sequel might have taken:
"Well I think that the studio would be very excited to make it. It's not that the studio is not excited, it's that we took one shot at the script [and] it wasn't something we all got excited to do. And just on a personal level, I was really excited to, having made one movie, to make different movies, not just go back into that world again. But now that I have some distance and I've done some other stuff, I would be more inclined to go back to Zombieland I guess you could say. But at the time when the talk of the sequel was really--when it felt like it was possible--I was really kind of shying away from it just because I've only made one movie, I wanna make different movies with different people and learn different things, and so I was a little hesitant to just jump right back into the same thing...You have to respect Fleischer's passion to not be pigeonholed as the "Zombieland guy," but the first film was a blast, and it's sad to think we might not ever get a sequel. But maybe in a few years he'll get the zombie itch again and give it a shot.Needless to say it was a continuation of the original story with the same characters. I guess the only thing I could really say is that the threat to our heroes wasn't only zombies, like they encounter other people that they're all jockeying for positions."
Would you like a Zombieland sequel?
(Via Collider)