When it comes tozombie movies, no one made them quite likeGeorge A. Romero. Starting with the 1968 classicNight of the Living Dead, a flesh-eating franchise started to walk the Earth. In the 55 plus years since, the series has spawned countless sequels of their own merit, likeDawnandDay of the Dead. Romero sadly passed away in 2017, leaving behind a large blood-soaked hole in the horror community. However, now Romero’s daughter, writer-directorTina Romero, is keeping her father’s legacy lovingly alive with her upcoming filmQueens of the Dead.
Speaking exclusively with the horror-centricFangoria Magazine, Romero teased the plot of her upcoming zombie outbreak. “It takes place over one night, at the beginning of the dead rising,” she said, setting the scene. “We find ourselves at a big warehouse party in Bushwick.We’ve got a party promoter for whom everything’s going wrong, and her lead act has dropped out, so she needs to call upon a friend — a retired drag queen — to resurrect his drag, to come and save the night. And it turns out to be a night of many resurrections.” Ramero would continue on, “And our motley crew of characters find themselves holed up in a Bushwick nightclub, having to decide ‘do we get out of here or do we board the place up?’ And they’ve got to survive the night.It’s about a group of non-fighters finding the survival skills deep within.”
While George Romero didn’t originally intend for hisof the Deadfranchiseto take onreal-world horror and sub-text, the dark racially charged ending ofNight of the Living Deadpaved the way for the rest of the series. That looks to continue with a modern twist inQueens of the Dead. As Tina Romero put it,“My dad’s zombies were always reflecting what was going on in the world, and I almost feel a responsibility to take the torch and keep the Romero zombie alive, upholding, respecting, paying homage to it, while also introducing myself and my own voice as a filmmaker, and my own perspective. Which is different from his.” George Romero directedall six mainline filmsin the franchise.
There would be remakes of bothNightandDawn of the Dead, alongside some unofficial sequels throughout the years, but few zombie nightmares have matched what the famous director did with his trailblazing universe. His last film before his death was 2009’sSurvival of the Dead. However, the main series will officially conclude soon withTwilight of the Dead. The sequel was adapted from an unproduced script by the late filmmaker. The universe was also expanded upon earlier this year in the Tubi original filmFestival of the Dead, which acted as a direct legacy sequel to Night.
There’s no exact release date forQueens of the Deadyet, but the film is set to start shooting this summer for a planned 2025 debut. In Tina Romero’s own words, “It’s going to be a conga line through the zombie apocalypse.I really believe thatzombie movies should be fun. And my hope is that audiences find this movie to be a fun ride that’s packed with some good jump scares, and some yummy gore and some pretty amusing characters.” It’ll also be old-school in the fact that there will be no guns in this unapologeticallyqueer“zom-com”, which surely means there’s going to be a lot of creative kills in store for us. While horror fans wait for more fleshy info on the film, you can view the first-look poster forQueens of the Deadbelow. You can also read Tina Romero’s full Fangora interview on theirwebsitewhere she goes more in depth about her filmmaking background and the love for her dad.
