According to Deadline, SyFy has given a 10-episode order for a Day of the Dead series, based on George Romero’s 1985 film of the same name. The series is written by Jed Elinoff and Scott Thomas (The Banana Splits Movie), who will also act as showrunners.
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Romero’s film was the third in his six-film Dead series, which began with Night of the Living Dead in 1968 then continued with 1978’s Dawn of the Dead, 2005’s Land of the Dead, 2007’s Diary of the Dead and 2009’s Survival of the Dead. Day of the Dead grossed $34 million worldwide upon its release, and followed a group of scientists in the wake of a zombie plague working in an underground bunker trying to find a cure to the pandemic.
The new series for SyFy is described as “the intense story of six strangers trying to survive the first 24 hours of an undead invasion.” This story foundation appears to bear little resemblance to the plot of the Romero film, and sounds more like a zombiefied take on the 24 formula.
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Day of the Dead will be produced by Stan Spry, Jeff Holland, Drew Brown for Cartel Entertainment (Creepshow), alongside Robert Dudelson, James Dudelson and Jordan Kizwani from HiTide Studios.
A prequel to the film (with no involvement from the original creators) titled Day of the Dead 2: Contagium was released in 2005, followed closely by a very loose remake titled Day of the Dead in 2008. Another remake titled Day of the Dead: Bloodline was released in 2018. All three of these films were panned and are not considered cannon with Romero’s cycle.
