Army of Thieves gets a first trailer teasing what happened before Army of the Dead

The first Army of Thieves trailer is here, and it's got all the action-packed heisting you'd expect from an Army of the Dead prequel.

The film brings back Matthias Schweighöfer as Ludwig Dieter, and the trailer sees him once again putting his safe-cracking skills to use. The adventure starts with Nathalie Emmanuel's Gwendoline recruiting him for her mysterious plans, against the backdrop of the early days of the zombie outbreak in the US. As well as Dieter working his magic on some elaborate vaults, the trailer features guns drawn and a fight in a moving truck. 

Along with Schweighöfer and Emmanuel, Army of Thieves also stars Stuart Martin as Brad Cage, Ruby O. Fee as Korina, and Guz Khan as Rolph. Some first look pictures of the film were recently released featuring the cast – and of course an impenetrable-looking safe or two. Army of the Dead helmer Zack Snyder is producing, with Schweighöfer directing.

"I just finished a prequel for my character, so everything is in that film," Schweighöfer recently said of the movie. "But the biography was that Dieter was – I can't say that, because it's a spoiler alert. You will love the prequel. His way to America is awesome. It's crazy." Snyder has also described the film as an "English, French, and German language movie" that "feels international."

Army of Thieves isn't the only prequel to Snyder's zombie heist movie in the works, either. There's also Army of the Dead: Lost Vegas, an anime series which will reveal more about the origins of the zombies shambling around Vegas – so we might finally find out why some of the undead are robots, and what's up with those UFOs. Much of the original cast return to voice their characters, including Scott Bautista and Tig Notaro, while new additions to the lineup include Joe Manganiello and Christian Slater.

It was also recently reported that there's an Army of the Dead 2 in the works. Details on the follow-up are scarce, but considering (spoiler alert) the first movie ended with Vanderohe, one of the heist's sole survivors, discovering a bite on his arm from Alpha zombie Zeus, it's looking like there’s more undead mayhem on the horizon.

So far, Army of Thieves doesn't have a firm arrival date, though its release window is set for this fall. Until then, check out our roundup of the best Netflix movies to fill out your watchlist.