A George Romero Zombie Classic Is Finally Getting A Sequel
Night of the Living Dead is getting a new sequel.
Just in time for spooky season this Halloween, news of a sequel that will be coming to audiences in the not-so-distant future has dropped this week, and it’s shaping up to be a good one. The George A. Romero zombie classic horror film, Night of the Living Dead, is getting a sequel that will play into an overall franchise deal made through Village Roadshow Pictures, according to Deadline.
Set to be directed by Nikyatu Jusu from a script written by LaToya Morgan, Village Roadshow Pictures is partnering with Romero’s former wife Christine and a host of other production companies like Sanibel Films, Origin Story, Vertigo, and Jada Pinkett Smith and Will Smith’s Westbrook Studios to bring the sequel back from the dead.
For the newest sequel of Night of the Living Dead, Nikyatu Jusu is most likely going to bring her expertise in independent cinema to a movie that has its origins in the indie horror circuit. Jusu is currently promoting the horror film Nanny, her feature film directorial debut, which has performed well at multiple film festivals this year and ended up winning the Grand Jury Prize at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival.
Screenwriter LaToya Morgan has written for several television series in the past decade, including Shameless, Parenthood, American Horror Story: The Orderly, and Into the Badlands, and has been a consulting producer and writer on The Walking Dead for AMC.
The original Night of the Living Dead was released in 1968 and helped to launch George A. Romero’s career in the horror movie genre, particularly with zombie fare that paved the way for hit television shows like The Walking Dead. Directed and edited by Romero, Night of the Living Dead has become a staple for spooky season for decades, as it dealt with seven individuals trapped in a Pennsylvania farmhouse who are trying to defend themselves against the flesh-eating zombies that are attempting to get in.
A cult favorite among zombie enthusiasts, the movie initially spawned several sequels when it entered the public domain, including an official 1990 remake directed by Tom Savini and written by Romero.
George A. Romero passed away in 2017 but his legacy as a horror film director lives on with Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead, and a host of other projects that defined his filmmaking career. Night of the Living Dead is currently streaming on a variety of subscription streaming platforms like HBO Max and Peacock, and was a commercial success over the years with a box office gross of $30 million against a budget of $125,000 to date.
The 1968 original movie has also been quite a success with critics and audiences alike over the course of almost 55 years since its debut, with Rotten Tomatoes currently ranking Romero’s original Night of the Living Dead as Certified Fresh with a 96% on its Tomatometer based on 79 critics’ reviews, as well as an Audience Score of 87% from over 100,000 ratings from verified users to the site.
