Netflix’s zombie smash hit “Army of the Dead” has a prequel coming this fall from the original film’s star, Matthias Schweighöfer. He’s the director and star of “Army of Thieves,” the set-up film to Zack Snyder’s wildly popular zombie movie. 

Schweighöfer plays small-town bank teller Dieter, who gets drawn into the adventure of a lifetime when a mysterious woman recruits him to join a crew of Interpol’s most wanted criminals attempting to heist a sequence of legendary, impossible-to-crack safes across Europe. Watch the first trailer below.

The screenplay comes from Shay Hatten, who co-wrote “Army of the Dead” with Joby Harold. The cast of “Army of Thieves” includes Nathalie Emmanuel, Ruby O. Fee, Stuart Martin, Guz Khan, and Jonathan Cohen. Producers are Zack Snyder, Deborah Snyder, Wesley Coller, Dan Maag, and Schweighöfer, from a story developed by Snyder and Hatten.

Deborah Snyder previously teased “Army of Thieves” in a conversation with IndieWire following the film’s release this May. She called it a “romantic comedy heist film,” adding, “It stands alone, and [while] you could watch it because it’s the history of our safecracker, it’s also just this really sweet, funny film,” she said. “It’s set in our same timeline, but it’s not like a zombie movie.

Matthias Schweighöfer, Nathalie Emmanuel in Army of Thieves
It’s more like ‘The Italian Job,’ but it takes place in a world where these zombies exist in America and it’s causing instability in the banking institutions. They’re moving money around, so it’s the perfect opportunity for a heist.”

Of the film’s character (and the director playing him), Snyder said, “Dieter is so beloved, when we tested the movie, he was one of people’s favorite characters. To get more info of, where did he come from, how did he learn to crack safes, I think that’s really fun, too. He’s a great director. It’s a smaller-scale movie than ‘Army,’ but it looks really big.”

Schweighöfer previously made his directing debut in 2010 with the rom-com “What a Man.”

“Army of Thieves” was prepped and shot during the pandemic and while a precise release date has yet to be set Netflix says it will be releasing the film on the platform this fall.