‘Army of Thieves’ Trailer: It’s Time to Crack Safes Around Europe in This ‘Army of the Dead’ Prequel

Back in May, director Zack Snyder delivered Army of the Dead, which told the story of a deadly heist that unfolded in the middle of a zombie apocalypse in Las Vegas. Now he’s back to produce a prequel directed by one of the film’s stars.

Army of Thieves takes place earlier in the zombie apocalypse timeline, when the United States has first started to feel the terror of the undead wreaking havoc across the country. That means there’s some instability in banking institutions, and Matthias Schweighöfer‘s Army of the Dead character Dieter gets recruited by a team of criminals tasked with cracking a series of safes that are otherwise impossible to break into. It’s the origin story everyone was demanding after Army of the Dead, right? Watch the Army of Thieves trailer below.

Army of Thieves Trailer

Dieter was a breakout favorite character from Army of the Dead, and normally that’s why you’d see a spin-off like this. But this film was given the greenlight way before anyone had seen the zombie heist flick yet, so Netflix must have had a lot of faith in Zack Snyder and Matthias Schweighöfer to get this off the ground in such a fashion.

Matthias Schweighöfer not only returns as Dieter, but he’s also behind the camera as the film’s director. Zack Snyder is producing this time, and he also wrote the story with Shay Hatten, who wrote the screenplay.

Army of Thieves Stands on Its Own

Producer Deborah Snyder previously spoke to IndieWire about the movie, calling it a “romantic comedy heist film.” Even though it’s a prequel for Army of the Dead, she emphasized that it works on its own:

“It stands alone, and [while] you could watch it because it’s the history of our safecracker, it’s also just this really sweet, funny film. It’s set in our same timeline, but it’s not like a zombie movie. … It’s more like ‘The Italian Job,’ but it takes place in a world where these zombies exist in America and it’s causing instability in the banking institutions. They’re moving money around, so it’s the perfect opportunity for a heist.”

There will probably be a few references to Army of the Dead, but if I saw this trailer and had no previous knowledge of that movie, I’d still say this looks like an intriguing premise and a fun movie. From Deiter’s unique personality to the use of a remixed “Ride of the Valkyries,” this looks like it could actually be better than Army of the Dead.

Nathalie Emmanuel, Ruby O. Fee, Stuart Martin, Guz Khan, and Jonathan Cohen also star in Army of Thieves, which is also produced by Wesley Coller, Dan Maag, and Matthias Schweighöfer.

In this prequel to Zack Snyder’s Army of the Dead, small-town bank teller Dieter gets drawn into the adventure of a lifetime when a mysterious woman recruits him to join a crew of Interpol’s most wanted criminals, attempting to heist a sequence of legendary, impossible-to-crack safes across Europe.

Army of Thieves doesn’t have an official release date yet.

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