Trivia / Living Dead Series

• Magnum Opus Dissonance:
  • George Romero has said that Day of the Dead was his personal favorite of his zombie movies, whereas many fans and critics prefer Dawn of the Dead better. Downplayed, as many agree that they’re both great films in their own right.
  • Subsequently, he also cited Survival of the Dead as his second favorite of his zombie films. Conversely, fans view it as both his worst zombie film, and his worst film altogether.
• Sequel Gap: Most of the movies in the George A. Romero series have had significant gaps between their release dates and that of their successor. Night of the Living Dead (1968) was followed 10 years later by Dawn of the Dead (1978), followed 7 years later by Day of the Dead (1985), followed 20 years later by Land of the Dead (2005). However, the last two movies were released within a few years of each other: Diary of the Dead in 2007 and Survival of the Dead in 2009. Those are also the only two to share any characters, as Survival is a P.O.V. Sequel to Diary.
• What Could Have Been:
  • George Romero had plans on continuing the series with "Road of the Dead", set six years after "Land of the Dead". Sadly, Romero passed away 2017, and though the script has been cowritten by Romero and Matt Birman before his death, and Birman himself expressing interest in making the movie, no news has come of it aside from a prequel comic book by IDW.
  • Turns out he also put together a script for a nineteen episode 'Night of the Living Dead' television show, with hopes of airing it in the late 90s. While it doesn't seem to be set in the same continuity as the movies (there is a character named 'Ben', but he's quite different from Duane Jones' portrayal), it still follows the same themes of the film, with Romero himself calling it "a sophisticated black satire of man’s behavior in crisis”, with more black comedy then the films presented (for example, mobile brains that crawl along the floor by using their temporal lobes for traction). One can only wonder how or if this might have affected the turn of the century 'zombie boom' had it been released.

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