Zombies Are Back

Did you know that Daryl Dixon’s The Walking Dead spin-off is still running? Thankfully, this post is not about that, because I actually dropped the series. I stuck with that franchise for 15 years, never missed an episode — but a third season of Norman Reedus wandering around Europe? I just couldn’t do it. I’ll return for what I hope (and expect) will be the final season of the Jeffrey Dean Morgan spin-off, but only because they cast Jimmi Simpson. That poor bastard.

This is not about that, though. This is about good zombie content. In addition to The Last of Us and the return of the 28 Days Later franchise, we’ve also got … Zombie Riverdale. This could either be really fun or my worst nightmare. Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and Greg Berlanti, the guys behind Riverdale, are developing Afterlife With Archie for Disney+, based on a horror-themed run of Archie comics from Aguirre-Sacasa.

Here’s the actual premise: The series reimagines Riverdale through the lens of a zombie apocalypse. It begins when Jughead’s beloved dog, Hot Dog, is killed and brought back to life by Sabrina the Teenage Witch. The resurrection goes wrong — Hot Dog turns rabid, bites Jughead, and soon Jughead becomes Patient Zero of a zombie outbreak that spreads through Riverdale.

Oh my god. It brings back Archie, Jughead, Betty, Veronica, and Sabrina the Teenage Witch, though I assume Riverdale’s thirty-something cast won’t be reprising their roles.

Meanwhile, the trailer for a new zombie horror movie starring Daisy Ridley, We Bury the Dead, dropped yesterday, and it looks surprisingly great. In the film, an American military experiment goes horribly awry, killing a bunch of people. While Ridley’s character searches for her missing husband, many of the buried dead rise and come back to life.

It looks like a good, old-fashioned zombie flick.

We Bury the Dead opens on January 2, 2026, landing the coveted “first release of the year is always a horror movie that scores about $15 million at the box office” slot.