{"id":218787,"date":"2026-01-06T01:24:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T01:24:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/218787\/"},"modified":"2026-01-06T01:24:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T01:24:11","slug":"brand-new-return-of-the-living-dead-sequel-aiming-for-late-2026-release","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/218787\/","title":{"rendered":"Brand New &#8216;Return of the Living Dead&#8217; Sequel Aiming for Late 2026 Release"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>After five films and a 20-year break, the\u00a0Return of the Living Dead\u00a0franchise is getting a brand new sequel, and the team announced during the holiday break that Tarman\u2019s return to the screen will be ready for mass consumption during next year\u2019s holiday season.<\/p>\n<p>The film\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/returnofthelivingdead.com\/blogs\/tarman-today\/tarman-takes-hollywood-with-big-screen-sneak-peek\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">official website<\/a> previews, \u201cthe film continues production into the new year while eyeing a theatrical release in November of 2026.\u201d Stay tuned and read on for more info.<\/p>\n<p>From Living Dead Media and director Steve Wolsh\u00a0(Muck, Kill Her Goats), Return of the Living Dead will be a brand new Christmas-themed sequel to the horror-comedy classic.<\/p>\n<p>Devon Sawa\u00a0(\u201cChucky,\u201d\u00a0Heart Eyes) stars alongside\u00a0Casimere \u201cCash\u201d Jollette\u00a0(Tiny Pretty Things), Kynlee Heiman\u00a0(The Best Christmas Pageant Ever), and\u00a0Alexander Ward (\u201cAmerican Horror Story\u201d) as the iconic zombie known as Tarman.<\/p>\n<p>The new story takes place in a small Pennsylvania town over Christmas, and it\u2019s set in 1985, 18 months after the events of the original film. \u201cFans of the film will know not to expect to see any returning characters, given their terrible fates in the original,\u201d Living Dead Media explains. According to Wolsh, this is not a reboot or a remake, but a brand-new adventure and it won\u2019t in any way trample the original film\u2019s legacy. \u201cAudiences can expect to be welcomed back into the dark humored, sexy, edgy, Trioxin fueled world horror fans first encountered in 1985.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The production has called in SFX legend\u00a0Tony Gardner\u00a0(Zombieland, Hocus Pocus, Chucky franchise) to establish the zombie look for the story. Tony and his team at Alterian Inc. were first tasked with creating a Tarman true to the original but evolved, more realistic, and scarier, using decades of experience and modern technology and material to create amazing old-school practical effects. Gardner said, \u201c[To be able to] up the horror, but be true to its roots, I feel like I\u2019m the perfect person for the job\u2026 and I\u2019m really excited.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>One of the greatest horror-comedies of all time, Dan O\u2019Bannon\u2019s 1985 movie\u00a0The Return of the Living Dead\u00a0ended up launching a franchise that to date includes five total movies.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"3442207\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/bloody-disgusting.com\/editorials\/3442032\/list-living-dead-top-10-zombie-films-time\/attachment\/z10_rotld\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bloody-disgusting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/z10_rotld.png?fit=1920%2C1080&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"1920,1080\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Return of the Living Dead\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bloody-disgusting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/z10_rotld.png?fit=300%2C169&amp;ssl=1\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bloody-disgusting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/z10_rotld.png?fit=740%2C416&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-3442207\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/z10_rotld.png\" alt=\"Return of the Living Dead reboot\" width=\"740\" height=\"416\"  \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After five films and a 20-year break, the\u00a0Return of the Living Dead\u00a0franchise is getting a brand new sequel,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":218788,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[47445,156,409,111,139,69,47446],"class_list":{"0":"post-218787","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-devon-sawa","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-movies","11":"tag-new-zealand","12":"tag-newzealand","13":"tag-nz","14":"tag-return-of-the-living-dead"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218787"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218787\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/218788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}