Zack Snyder‘s upcoming Netflix action-horror ‘Army of the Dead’ began filming on Monday, with a cast headed up by Dave Bautista, which also includes Ana De La Reguera, Ella Purnell, Huma Qureshi, and Theo Rossi. Now, Omari Hardwick, Chris D’Elia and Hiroyuki Sanada, have been added, along with Garret Dillahunt, Raúl Castillo, Nora Arnezeder, Matthias Schweighöfer, Samantha Win, and Rich Cetrone. Presumably, by the way these castings were announced, Hardwick, D’Elia, and Sanada have larger parts, with the rest in smaller roles. None of their characters were announced.
[Army of the Dead] is set amid a zombie outbreak in Las Vegas, during which a man assembles a group of mercenaries to take the ultimate gamble: venturing into the quarantined zone to pull off the greatest heist ever attempted. Zack Snyder and Deborah Snyder are producing, and Ori Marmur and Andrew Norman are overseeing it for Netflix.
Hardwick is best known as James ‘Ghost’ St. Patrick, the lead on STARZ’s ‘Power’, and before that, he starred in the first season of BET’s ‘Being Mary Jane’. He recently starred in the drama ‘Sgt. Will Gardner’, as well in the comedy ‘Nobody’s Fool’, romantic drama ‘A Boy. A Girl. A Dream.’ and the acclaimed ‘Sorry to Bother You’.
Some casting descriptions were previously released, and it’s possible that Hardwick is playing the part of “Reggie,” but that’s just a guess. Here is that description:
Reggie (20s): “Tough as can be—jacked, stacked and cool.” He, too, is a member of the team whose primary role is straight-up zombie killer.
But that’s just a guess.
Chris D’Elia is a standup comedian and actor. He has a couple of standup specials available on Netflix, and has had roles on the sitcom ‘Whitney’ and the drama ‘The Good Doctor’. He will co-star in the second season of the thriller ‘You’ on Netflix.
Japanese action star Hiroyuki Sanada appeared in the second season of HBO’s ‘Westworld’ as one of the new samurai hosts. He was most recently seen getting killed by Jeremy Renner in ‘Avengers: Endgame’. Among his other credits have been ‘The Last Ship’, ‘Helix’, ‘Extant’, ‘The Wolverine’, and more.
As for the rest of the cast, Garret Dillahunt recently appeared as John Dorie on ‘Fear the Walking Dead’, and as Dr. Roderick Campbell on ‘The Gifted’. Raúl Castillo portrayed Baco on Starz’ ‘Vida’, and Nick on Netflix’s ‘Atypical’. Nora Arnezeder starred as Evelyn Rey in the Youtube series ‘Origin’, and as Ana Maria on Amazon Prime Video’s ‘Mozart in the Jungle’. Matthias Schweighöfer starred as the lead character, Lukas Franke, on Amazon’s ‘You Are Wanted’. Samantha Win and Rich Cetrone have worked extensively as stunt performers, and have acted in a few roles as well. Win has appeared in ‘Wonder Woman’, ‘Justice League’, ‘Lethal Weapon’, ‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’, ‘Arrow’ and more, while Cetrone has worked on ‘Sucker Punch’, ‘Thor’, ‘Underworld Awakening’, ‘Man of Steel’, ‘Sleepy Hollow’, and more.
The only actor among these whose role I can guess is Schweighöfer, who is German. He is probably playing:
Ludwig Dieter (Male, 20s): A scrawny Swiss-German kid and master safe-cracker. He has broken into more high-security vaults than anybody else in the world. Dieter is the only one who is vocally excited about the mission and considers the upcoming adventure real “fun.”
The only mitigating factor is that the role is described as “scrawny” and Schweighöfer is pretty muscular, but there are ways to work around that.
Snyder’s ‘Army of the Dead’ just started filming so it will most likely not be released until sometime next year. Check back for updates!
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
