Zack Snyder addresses Army of the Dead time-loop theory: "There's a lot of clues"
Army of the Dead's time loop theory may hold water... and a lot of corpses
Army of the Dead's… uhhhh... army of fans love to deep dive into Zack Snyder's latest genre pic, searching for any easter eggs the filmmaker might have left behind (like that Justice League one) and, of course, to unravel that one particularly intriguing theory. You know, the Army of the Dead time-loop theory.
Okay, well, in case you don't know it, here's the skinny. Halfway through the movie, inside Bly's casino, Dieter (Matthias Schweighöfer) notices a group of dead bodies dressed in such a way they resemble the movie's main cast of characters. What does this mean? This deceased gang are actually them – but from an alternate timeline.
Vanderohe (Omari Hardwick) asks whether it's "another team, or is it us?" He goes on to explains: "It could be us in another timeline, and we’re caught in some infinite loop of fighting and dying, fighting and dying, fighting and dying."
As part of Netflix's Geeked Week, Snyder came aboard to discuss his latest blockbuster and while no news emerged on the spin-offs or the potential Army of the Dead season 2, he did fan the flames of this particular fan theory.
One commenter asked: "Time loop?" which immediately propelled Snyder into a lengthy explanation, that you can watch below at the 23:50 mark.
"So in the movie, there’s a sequence where one of the characters talks about the fact that maybe this whole adventure that they’re on, they’re caught in some infinite loop of fighting and dying and fighting and dying. And, um, it might be true. Who knows?" Snyder says.
"There’s a lot of clues in the movie that would support that theory. For instance, you see in that sequence, you see that there’s some skeletons in the vault there’s like a shot of each of them, and you see a shot of one of our characters, and they happen to be wearing the same necklace or the same — it’s them.
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"When they actually get in the casino there’s a set of plans, and Scott says Tanaka had other teams in here before us. If you notice, the dead guys around that table are them again. So if you wanna play that game, it’s there to play."
It's certainly an interesting kernel of knowledge, Snyder being a willing participant in this theory. Either it means he deliberately created a time loop with plans to reveal it in a sequel, or he's happily indulging his devout fanbase, we'll take it.
If you're eager to feast on more undead reads, check out our look at the Army of the Dead ending and a look into how they created Army of the Dead's CG Vegas.
Gem Seddon is GamesRadar+'s west coast Entertainment News Reporter, working to keep all of you updated on all of the latest and greatest movies and shows on streaming platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime. Outside of entertainment journalism, Gem can frequently be found writing about the alternative health and wellness industry, and obsessing over all things Aliens and Terminator on Twitter.