Zombieland Sequel Will Be A TV Series, Not A Movie

By Joshua Tyler | Updated

This article is more than 2 years old

Zombieland TVZombieland rocked critics, audiences, and the box office when it was released, so it only made sense that talks of a sequel started cropping up. But a half-hour comedy on television? Apparently, Fox and Sony Pictures Television are looking to do just that. Zombieland producer Gavin Polone says the television series would come in place of a feature film sequel to the 2009 horror-action-comedy starring Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, and Emma Stone. THR says that the powers that be are aiming to have Zombieland: The Series ready for the 2012-13 broadcast season.

Fox and Sony are obviously trying to jump on the undead bandwagon, and it’s probably no coincidence that this news comes just after AMC’s The Walking Dead’s huge season 2 premiere ratings. It also isn’t too difficult to see how a Zombieland series might fit into Fox’s line-up. The off-kilter humor and use of voice-over could pair well with Raising Hope, even though the subject matter is miles away.

What will be interesting to see is how the R-rated aspects of the film are translated to network television. Most Fox affiliates don’t air programming during the 10/9c timeslot in which more “adult” fare usually airs on broadcast channels, so language and gore would definitely need to be toned down. Would a neutered Zombieland still work? Can other characters be developed for or plugged into its universe successfully?

With these kinds of questions on our minds, it’s good to hear that Zombieland’s writers – Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick – are on-board to write the television series. It’s easy to imagine studio-assigned writers brought in to destroy the quirky and twisted vibe of the film.

No word yet on whether the series would involve the original characters or come after the actual events of the film, nor do we know if any of the original cast would be returning.