'Zombieland 2' Double Tap: Eisenberg Says It Stays True to the Original

Ten years ago, just before The Walking Dead ushered in the zombie renaissance, the 2009 film Zombieland weaved comedy and horror with a cast of likable leads in a road trip across a post-apocalyptic America. A sequel, Zombieland: Double Tap is on the way, set for release in theaters on October 18, and returning star Jesse Eisenberg tells Inverse that the movie has lost none of its touch in the past decade.

In an interview promoting his new dark comedy, The Art of Self-Defense, Eisenberg teases that Zombieland: Double Tap won’t “compromise” between the highbrow humor and “lowbrow element” of zombie murder.

“What makes [the new film] special is that we never compromise how highbrow the humor can be,” Eisenberg says. “The movie is a zombie comedy, so it has a very accessible lowbrow element, which is killing zombies.”

Eisenberg further teases that Zombieland: Double Tap will maintain the sentimentality of its characters from the original, which audiences didn’t expect from a zombie comedy released in 2009.

Adds Eisenberg, “I think what the [Zombieland: Double Tap] does well is they don’t compromise how emotional and sweet the characters can be, and how highbrow and obscure the humor can be. It’s a great mixture that allows it to be special, not only trying to appeal to all people.”

Zombieland: Double Tap, set ten years after the original, will reunite Eisenberg’s Columbus with Wichita (Emma Stone), Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson), and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin) as they find a new home in the American heartlands. They will meet more survivors (including another Ghostbuster, with Dany Ayrkroyd joining Bill Murray as themselves) as they face off against an evolved form of zombie.

New members of the cast include Zoey Deutch, Avan Jogia, Rosario Dawson, Thomas Middleditch, and Luke Wilson who play survivors of the apocalypse.

In an October 2018 interview with Inverse to promote Venom, director Reuben Fleischer teased that Zombieland: Double Tap will feature new characters in while commenting on pop culture’s zombie obsession.

“It does take place ten years after the original,” Fleischer told Inverse. “One of the things I’m most excited about is meeting some new characters over the course of the film. That’s a really exciting prospect.”

He added, “There’s acknowledgment and commentary on the zombie phenomenon in Zombieland, but maybe not in a completely direct way.”

Zombieland: Double Tap will be released in theaters on October 18.