Even the most ardent zombie fans have been known to groan about the overwhelming amount of shows in recent years about reanimated stiffs.
But the increasing popularity of The Walking Dead serves to show just how much staying power the genre has.
Now it seems TV is set to be getting another legion of the Undead. And more excitingly, this time the show will come from zombie godfather himself George A. Romero and his Marvel Comics series Empire of the Dead.
Empire of the Dead not only features zombies, the story also focuses on a group of vampires that serve as part of the new world order. These are dark days, indeed.
A story told in three five-issue acts, with the final act having just kicked off in April, the story takes place in New York, where a co-existence has been formed between the vamps, the zombies and the humans.
The story also boasts a mysterious zombie named Xavier, who has everyone’s attention because she exhibits humanistic qualities like the ability to learn.
Fans will be happy to learn that George A. Romero will play a big part of the project, as he’ll be on as a writer, making this his first TV project since Tales from the Darkside in the 1980s.
There’s no sign of whether or not he’ll get behind the camera, though. And at this point, it doesn’t appear that anyone from the Marvel side of things is onboard.
Putting the Marvel label on this show should easily mean the difference between it appearing on Syfy or up on Netflix where Daredevil and the other Marvel comic properties have made their home.
The company that’s planning on bringing Empire of the Dead to small screen audiences is Demarest Films, who made the announcement at Cannes, according to THR.
Demarest is known for making films that appeal to both genre and thriller fans, such as A Most Wanted Man, Sin City: A Dame to Kill For and Tusk.
This will be their second foray into the TV world, as they’re also behind the upcoming star-studded adaptation of John le Carre’s The Night Manager, with Tom Hiddleston and Hugh Laurie.
Before co-founding Demarest, producer Sam Englebardt also worked with Romero on his last two films, Survival of the Dead and Diary of the Dead.
Beyond The Walking Dead and Z Nation, zombie TV also includes The CW’s iZombie – which was also (loosely) based on a comic book – and A&E’s The Returned, which is based on a French series.
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