Well there’s good news and back news, Zombie fans.
The good news is that Zombies 5 has been official greenlit for Disney+ and Disney Channel, but the bad news is that the franchise leading stars Milo Manheim and Meg Donnelly will not reprise their roles as Zed and Addison according to Variety.
Manheim and Donnelly will only serve as executive producers for the fifth installment and instead Malachi Barton and Freya Skye will be the leading stars for Zombies 5.
Barton and Skye portrayed Victor and Nova in previous film, Zombies 4: Dawn of the Vampires.
No official explanation as to why Manheim and Donnelly are not returning in Zombies 5.
As of now, it’s known that Manheim is currently prepping up for the live-action Tangled for Disney where he’s set to star as Flynn Ryder opposite of Teagan Croft as Rapunzel which is expected to begin filming in June at the UK and Spain and Donnelly has a scheduling conflict.
With more casting announcements, Trevor Tordjman will return as Bucky along with Swayam Bhatia as Vera, Julian Lerner as Ray, and Mekonnen Knife as Vargas.
Zombies 5 will introduce a trio of mermaids played by Diaana Babnicova as Pearl, Taylor Oliver as Fin, and Olive Mortimer as Sandy and Emily Costtrici joins the cast as Izzy, described as “a zombie who’s Zed’s cousin and a new transfer student”.
Paul Heon, who’s directed all the Zombies films is returning to direct Zombies 5 and one of the executive producers for the film. Skot Bright will produce, with choreography by Dondraico Johnson and an original score composed by Tom Howe. Chris Hazzard, Michael Fontana and Eydie Faye are the screenwriters for the fifth film.
The official synopsis of Zombies 5: “The newfound peace between the Daywalkers and Vampires is put to the test when a band of fierce mermaids arrives in Rayburn, making waves and casting a persuasive siren song to lure in new allies. Nova and Victor must reunite their groups to discover what the mermaids are really after in order to protect the fragile harmony they worked so hard to build.”
Zombies is one of the major popular franchises for Disney Channel Original Movies with the first 3 movies being a major hit with audiences and the fourth feature received 9.3 million viewers globally in the first nine days of its release and gained 43 million views less than six months, per Disney streaming data.
Zombies 5 will began filming this Spring in New Zealand.
Source: Variety
