Entertainment

The New Survivors In ‘Zombieland: Double Tap’ Could Be Friends Or Really Annoying Foes

by Jasmine Ting
Luke Wilson and Woody Harrelson as Albuquerque and Tallahassee in Zombieland Double Tap
Sony Pictures Entertainment

In 2009's Zombieland, audiences are introduced to zombie apocalypse survivors Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg), Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson), Wichita (Emma Stone), and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin). The four form a dysfunctional group that somehow just works, and since then they've stuck together as family. In Zombieland: Double Tap, which premieres on Oct. 18, it's been 10 years of zombie slaying, and the group has settled down in the White House. But the foursome experience a falling out, forcing them to embark on a new adventure. Along the way, the Zombieland gang encounters a new group of survivors, whose help they may just need in order to keep surviving.

Director Ruben Fleischer told Entertainment Weekly that he and his team calls these new Zombieland characters "doppelgängers," even though not all of them exhibit traits that mirror those of the original four.

Berkeley (Avan Jogia) is the man-bun-sporting, weed-carrying, guitar-playing hitchhiker that Little Rock picks up on the road and then runs off with. In the casting announcement, Deadline described him as "the epitome of the bad boy musician that you would hate for your daughter to fall in love with." Tallahassee's fatherly instincts kick in when he expresses his disapproval in the trailer. "I have nothing against hippies. I just want to beat the sh*t out of them," he says.

In a preview clip, Columbus, Tallahassee, and Wichita split up to look for Little Rock and her new boyfriend in an Elvis Presley-themed hotel. Tallahassee messes around on the piano, which is when he meets Rosario Dawson's kickass character Nevada, who puts a gun to his head and reveals that she's been living in the hotel for quite some time. According to SYFY Wire, Nevada is an Elvis fanatic who knows her way around guns and weaponry — much like Tallahassee.

Meanwhile Madison, played by Zoey Deutch, is a stereotypical "dumb blonde" who Columbus and Tallahassee meet in a scented candle shop in an abandoned mall. In a clip from the film, Madison reveals that she's been living in a freezer at Pinkberry — which explains why she's wearing a puffy pink winter jacket. "It keeps the zombies out," she explains. "Though it is awfully chilly." Also per SYFY Wire, something of a love triangle develops between her, Columbus, and Wichita.

Unlike Madison, Nevada, and Berkeley, who were alone before they met the original Zombieland four, it seems that Luke Wilson's Albuquerque and Thomas Middleditch's Flagstaff had already found each other and teamed up to survive the apocalypse. In the trailer, it's clear right off the bat that the two bear very close semblance (in terms of both their looks and temperament) to Tallahassee and Columbus — who were also the first two members of their zombie apocalypse survival squad. Like Tallahassee, Albuquerque is a hot-headed, stubborn and cocky cowboy, while Flagstaff is a shy, awkward, and has curly hair.

Sony Pictures Entertainment

Each encounter with the new survivors is a challenge in itself, as the gang has to deal with other personalities after 10 years of living in their own little world. But they're going to have to get over their differences (or, well, uncanny similarities) because there's a larger threat. “In the 10 years since the first movie, zombies have evolved into different types of zombies,” Fleischer told EW. “The one that’s causing the big threat are the T-800 zombies, that are stronger, faster, harder to kill.”

Hopefully these new survivors will become allies. Because both gangs will have to get their act together to make it another 10 years in the zombie apocalypse.