Army Of The Dead scene-stealer Matthias Schweighöfer gets the spotlight in prequel teaser

The Army Of The Dead prequel Army Of Thieves hits Netflix in the fall

Film News Army of the Dead
Army Of The Dead scene-stealer Matthias Schweighöfer gets the spotlight in prequel teaser
Matthias Schweighöfer as Ludwig in Army Of Thieves Screenshot: Netflix

When the internet couldn’t stop talking about Zack Snyder—for better or worse—Netflix decided that what we really needed was more Snyder content and so, they reached a first-look movie deal with him. The next Snyder project heading to Netflix is Army Of Thieves, the prequel to Army Of The Dead. The original movie’s star Matthias Schweighöfer returns as Ludwig Dieter; he also serves as director along with Zack Snyder and Deborah Snyder as producers. Today, Netflix shared the trailer for the prequel, showing the backstory of how Ludwig became the master safecracker in The Army Of The Dead.

From what we see in the trailer, Game Of ThronesNathalie Emmanuel plays the mysterious Gwendoline of Gwendoline’s Safe & Lock Co., who’s taken note of Ludwig’s impressive safecracking skills and recruits him to work with her. While the zombie outbreak’s going on in America, Gwendoline wants to use this opportunity—since the world’s distracted—to orchestrate a heist that’d involve Ludwig cracking safes with the help of a crew. This is seemingly the heist where he cracked the 3 Hans Wagner safes mentioned in Army Of The Dead. Ludwig was just as jumpy then, remarking in shock that he’d given weapons during the heist. He also gets to have a little bit of romance going on with Gwendoline.

Deborah Snyder had referred to Army Of Thieves as a “romantic comedy heist film” and said that it wouldn’t really be a zombie heist flick like Army Of The Dead. From the looks of the trailer, that description isn’t too far off. You almost forget there’s a zombie outbreak going on, except for a brief point in the trailer where the zombies are shown in the news. As for when you can watch this “rom-com heist”? Well, Netflix hasn’t revealed an exact premiere date yet but, according to the trailer, it’ll arrive to the streaming service this fall.

55 Comments

  • laserface1242-av says:

    Will Snyder platform fascist Sean Spicer for a cameo again?

  • oldmanschultz-av says:

    Oh please no. Don’t make him internationally famous. He is known here in Germany for starring in and directing some of the worst high-budget schlock you could imagine.He’s a terrible actor. I don’t know what Zack Snyder did to make it look like he isn’t, but I promise you, he is bad. A complete hack who just keeps failing upwards.I thought this site was a safe space for Germans trying to escape our sad national excuse for pop culture. 🙁

    • gargsy-av says:

      “I don’t know what Zak Snyder did to make it look like he isn’t”

      He didn’t do anything. Schweighofer was awful on Army.

    • aleatoire-av says:

      I always thought the problem with German movies was the same as for many big budget family movies in France : actors do their best, but the scripts are awful, the directing is lame, everything’s lazy…

      • oldmanschultz-av says:

        Everything is indeed lazy. “Artistic vision” is an alien concept to most of the population. And in Schweighöfer’s case, even the acting is lazy. He always acts like he assumes it’s not that hard. Pompous and self-satisfied. An attitude that I find utterly distasteful.

    • killedmyhair-av says:

      Glad to see a fellow German has already brought the Schweighöfer hate to the comment section. I feel it in my bones!

      • oldmanschultz-av says:

        Nun ja, wie du und ich sicher beide wissen, hat er unseren Hass mehr als verdient.Well, as you and I surely know, he is more than deserving of our hatred.

    • ifsometimesmaybe-av says:

      He actually was one of the standouts of Army of the Dead.TBH though, that’s not saying much- he’s the odd man out amongst a bunch of operatives trying to be the toughest gristle on the steak. The only person that could’ve stood out more than his character was Tig Notaro’s, but the way they added her in post was so baffling it seems like a joke.

      • oldmanschultz-av says:

        Yeah I haven’t seen it (Zack Snyder movies tend to bore me to tears, in spite of the many elaborate action sequences), but if it looks like he can act, I’m not buying it.The thing is, you simply cannot imagine the kind of drivel that this guy is known for around here. And even by the low standards he has set for himself, he still can always be counted on to deliver an underwhelming performance.This is weird. I don’t like this.

        • ifsometimesmaybe-av says:

          It’s honestly amongst Snyder’s most cohesive films storywise, yet even still he takes a billion years to set everything up. It’s still a messy story too, with characters that aren’t really necessary or characters that act with little justification to what they’re doing. Snyder also used some sort of vintage camera for effect, and I found it very jarring throughout the film- there was this hazy feel to a lot of the shots, and I honestly thought it was because he shot through the epidemic and just green-screened people into location. Tig Notaro’s CGI appearance has the same effect as if anybody added themselves to an already-finished film; they don’t feel in place in the film, and characters barely acknowledge her as real.Ultimately, I think even if it’s easy to watch on Netflix, I wouldn’t recommend it to many people. I enjoy watching Snyder for the sake of playing Eye-Spy for any of his weird, reactionary politics, and this film was the most devoid of such a thing. It was just a strange, stupid, kinda fun film that was way too long.

          • oldmanschultz-av says:

            Hey, I mean, it can’t be worse than Watchmen. Read the graphic novel first, then watch the movie and you’ll know more about how Snyder consumes art than you ever wanted to.From what you describe, this one might work as something to put on in the background. I’ll certainly keep that in mind.**That’s how I write, by putting on something middling and whenever I get stuck, I’ll just focus on that for a while until I get another idea.

          • ifsometimesmaybe-av says:

            Haha, I actually have my Watchmen copy on my coffee table right now. Snyder’s film came out in my early 20’s, so I thought it was fucking amazing that the 300 guy was adapting one of the most formative comic series I’d ever read. It was Sucker Punch that had me going “what the fuck is Snyder about?”, and rewatching 300 or Dawn of the Dead had me realize that Snyder is a weird reactionary and probably doesn’t realize it. The “I’m going to take Superman and remove his humanity in order to make him a perfect power fantasy” and “I’m going to take Batman and focus purely on his class status enabling him to literally murder without reproach”, that only reinforces it.

    • argiebargie-av says:

      Thanks, I’ve been wondering who was supposed to be Germany’s answer to Chris Pratt.

      • oldmanschultz-av says:

        I don’t like Chris Pratt either and he can’t act for shit, but compared to Schweighöfer, he at least has a little bit of natural charisma.

    • TRT-X-av says:

      I don’t know what Zack Snyder did to make it look like he isn’t, but I promise you, he is bad. A complete hack who just keeps failing upwards.
      So what you’re saying is Zack Snyder’s game recognized game.

    • franknstein-av says:

      I’d argue that it’s very hard to look like a good actor while being in a Till Schweiger film….I don’t think Zack Snyder’s much better at that, though…

      • yesidrivea240-av says:

        His Till Schweiger considered a joke in Germany? I’ve like him in the small roles I’ve seen him play in our US productions.

        • pitaenigma-av says:

          My ex despised him outside of Barfuss and Knockin on Heaven’s Door. I disliked the latter, thought the former was ok.

        • franknstein-av says:

          Those are some small, very specific roles that don’t… require too many acting chops… 🙂 usually silent, one note characters. In Germany he’s mostly known for either making action movies that desperately want to look like Hollywood productions or comedies that are… admittedly quite successful, but also quite low brow. And nobody would consider him a good actor as such..
          He is good businessman though – he’s usually producing and directing his movies himself and making quite a good national box office with them…One may call him the German Adam Sandler . 🙂

          • yesidrivea240-av says:

            Lmfao, the German Adam Sandler…

            That paints a fairly clear picture.

          • oldmanschultz-av says:

            But only paycheck-Adam Sandler. Sandler has been known to do killer stand-up and even though he rarely does it, he can definitely act (see Punch-Drunk Love).Schweighöfer is Sandler without any of the redeeming qualities.

    • gccompsci365-av says:

      “A complete hack who just keeps failing upwards”I wonder why Snyder likes him.

  • ohnoray-av says:

    “and said that it wouldn’t really be a zombie heist flick like Army Of The Dead.”I mean neither was Army Of The Dead.

    • TRT-X-av says:

      Right? A zombie heist flick would’ve been Ocean’s 11 but set during the opening titles of Army of the Dead.

  • chittychittyfengfeng-av says:

    That movie straight up sucked.

  • weirdstalkersareweird-av says:

    NEEDZ MOAR PREGGO ZOMBIES.

  • doncae-av says:

    Hmm… set in an “exotic” location (Vegas/Europe)…Some sort of heist…Except for one chase, looks like every scene is going to be indoors and every setpiece is just going to be shooting guns and running away from bad guys and a big safe this guy gets to crack presumably before they have to shoot more guns.Ladies and gentlemen, Zack Snyder, your modern heist movie king! Get out of here Soderbergh with your Ocean’s movies and your plotting and screenplay and script!

    • adamtrevorjackson-av says:

      not to defend what will absolutely be a shitty movie, but you gotta assume this was filmed entirely over covid so they were probably pretty limited with locations. obviously, that’s just another reason to: not make it in the first place.

      • doncae-av says:

        I don’t think Covid is the issue.Army of the Dead was shot before lockdowns (except for Tig Notaro), and they utilized their primary location of Vegas by scurrying around dark hallways. It’s basically just a setup for a fun opening montage and does not factor into the rest of the movie. I guess there was a short firefight on a casino floor.I just can’t imagine Snyder having learned how to write a good heist movie, rather than having written a bad heist movie then thrown in zombies and a Vegas location because that’s crazy!!1!, or having finished Army of the Dead and thought that was a movie that warranted a prequel and somehow having written a good heist movie except without many zombies but you know there’ll be a small outbreak or something. If only someone else had done a Vegas zombie heist movie 30 years ago and then he could’ve modernized it.Or maybe he just watched the Italian Job and  decided to update it with his whacky characters and zombies.

        • adamtrevorjackson-av says:

          good news is snyder only has a story-by credit, bad news is it’s still written by one of the guys who did army of the dead.

    • worthlesslester-av says:

      No Sudden Move was effin terrible

  • usernameorwhatever-av says:

    Stealing scenes from Army of the Dead would be like robbing a barn. Congrats. You get a bunch of horse shit for yourself.

  • themightymanotaur-av says:

    Just stop, please. Stop giving Snyder work and stop him giving his friends work too. We don’t need or want any of it.

  • magpie187-av says:

    So Army of the Dead without zombies? Oceans 11 remake?Army was so disappointing. There was a killer zombie movie sitting there to be made & he made a silly soap opera. 

    • yesidrivea240-av says:

      They either needed to go full Oceans 11, or full zombie movie, but their attempt to do both failed terribly. 

    • radarskiy-av says:

      How about “The Italian Zombie Job”?“You were only supposed to blow the bloody heads off!’

  • cura-te-ipsum-av says:

    I wonder if they’re going to use this film to show he actually survived Army of the Dead, given we saw him only being dragged to his seeming doom but not actually being killed.

    • TRT-X-av says:

      Oh I’m sure Snyder will find a way.

    • bluebeard22-av says:

      I couldn’t even remember if he survived or not. Also, while I do think he was the standout in the film I also felt like his whole character was a bargain bin NoHo Hank. 

    • dirtside-av says:

      Isn’t this a prequel?

    • mattthewsedlar-av says:

      But the place was nuked. I can’t imagine imagine him surviving unless he was also in the safe. If the blast didn’t kill him, the radiation would.

      • radarskiy-av says:

        “unless he was also in the safe”Congratulations on your first script sale. Did you take your payment in US dollars or cocaine?

  • bgunderson-av says:

    Why does this exist? Have we offended the Great Old Ones? Is this how mighty Cthulhu rips the screaming souls of the unworthy from the shattered remnants of our mortal clay? Our only hope is to pray for the sweet release of death before this unholy abomination is released upon an unready world for truly all hope is lost.

  • farkwad-av says:

    Who the fuck asks for this stuff anymore? With each new ‘original’ I become more and more convinced that Netflix is a massive money-laundering front. 

  • hcd4-av says:

    So, it’s likely that I just can’t tell time anymore, but was that fast? Seems fast.

  • kencerveny-av says:

    I wouldn’t say scene-stealer as much as forehead slapping annoyance.

  • yesidrivea240-av says:

    So, were they already filming this before the last movie released?

  • doctordepravo-av says:

    He was the absolutely, abjectly worst part of AOTD.Who the hell asked for more of this dude?

  • amazingpotato-av says:

    “Get ready for the army before the dead”? I don’t even know where to begin with this. 

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