SyFy revealed its brand new trailer for the upcoming Day of the Dead series as well as a projected release date in October.
The 10-episode series takes place during and after the dead rise up as zombies that take over the world. A group of scientists and soldiers barricade themselves in an underground lab as they try to figure out a cure, but the undead prove to be quite a challenge.
According to the new trailer, which is included within the Comic-Con@Home virtual panel on the show, we see an homage to George Romero’s work that includes everything from slow, lumbering zombies to campy ’80s humor.
Of course, Romero is considered the godfather of the zombie genre with 1968’s Night of the Living Dead, although remakes of his classics rarely seem to capture that same magic. The original Day of the Dead was created by Romero in 1985 and was remade in 2008 to very low ratings. It was also remade as Day of the Dead: Bloodline in 2018, but that, too, was ill-received by critics and fans.
In the Comic-Con@Home panel, showrunners Jed Elinoff and Scott Thomas, along with director Steven Kostanski and cast members Keenan Tracey and Natalie Malaika are joined by SyFy Wire’s Caitlin Busch to discuss the trailer and the series.
Scott Thomas made some interesting remarks during the panel that relate to the creative decisions made with this series. Most notably, these are slow zombies that are actual raised dead. Living people aren’t suddenly changing into zombies in this one.
But another notable change from the “modern zombie” is the fact that these can’t simply be killed with a headshot. Sorry Rick Grimes, your impeccable aim is no use here.
“We felt like that was just becoming too easy,” Thomas said during the panel. “We did want to switch up the rules a little bit.”
Another interesting example of breaking those rules is the fact that bites from the undead don’t turn people into zombies automatically. “It’s a little bit of a grey area,” Thomas remarks.
Director Steven Kostanski also talks about the setting of this series and how it’s meant to mess with that traditional zombie mythology enough to grab audiences. Day of the Dead is intentionally different from what we may be expecting after other shows like The Walking Dead have laid down this groundwork of living life in a post-apocalyptic world.
“I like the idea of a show that’s just in that moment,” Kostanski said. “This initial outbreak happens and all hell is breaking loose. What do you do?”
Day of the Dead is coming in October only on SyFy.
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