BACKGROUND
Movie sequels are becoming increasingly more common in the film industry as studios look to potentially maximise their movie’s brand potential, as well as their profits, because it’s generally considered true that movie sequels bring in more viewers than the original.
Just look at Disney Animation or Pixar. Frozen II (2019), Moana 2 (2024) and Inside Out 2 (2024) beat their predecessors at the box-office, however, it is also worth noting that these sequels were met with more mixed responses than the original movies.
But if a movie franchise wants to do really well, at least financially, they tend to make three movies, if not more. This happens fairly frequently these days too, but at this point in a movie franchise, the “threequel” starts to become seen as pointless and unnecessary, going so far as to anger fans of the franchise and potentially even ruin its legacy.
I wish more studios knew when to give it a rest and find something new to make, but in this day and age when less people are visiting movie theatres, instead relying on their streaming services, which they have already paid for and will inevitably have those movies added to their catalogues at a later date, studios don’t want to take a risk on an original story that won’t bring in the audience.
So as much as it irks me that this happens, I can see why it does, and actually, I personally have enjoyed a few “threequels”, like Toy Story 3 (2010). Two more of these come from the Disney Channel Original Movie world and their most popular musical franchises. I’m talking about High School Musical 3: Senior Year (2008) and The Cheetah Girls: One World (2008), which were the final outings of both of these franchises. In fact, I love those two movies more than the originals and their sequels. But this is an anomaly.
There haven’t even been all that many trilogies in the realm of DCOMs, but I know two “threequels” that let me down immensely. One was Descendants 3 (2019), although it wrapped up its story nicely and was poignant in its own way.
The other was ZOMBIES 3 (2022). When I first watched it, I couldn’t find anything I liked about it, or any music that I remembered from it. I actually watched it pretty soon after it premiered too, but it was a big disappointment, and I’m not even the biggest ZOMBIES fan.
To be fair, when I rewatched it this week, I didn’t find it as bad, and I came away liking a couple of the songs, but still, in general, it wasn’t a great movie to watch, no matter how much you can see the cast enjoying themselves. I think the fact it was aliens coming to Seabrook just completely lost me. I know zombies don’t exist and nor do werewolves, but for some reason, the aliens were a step too far, and something I couldn’t get on board with.
PLOT
ZOMBIES 3 begins with an animated opening sequence, much like the first two movies, giving a brief recap of what has happened in Seabrook over the last few years. Basically, we had the lime soda incident that caused the zombie outbreak; the zombies then lived in harmony with humans in Seabrook; the werewolves arrived looking for their moonstone; human Addison helped them find their moonstone; and now the wolves live in Seabrook too. Today, Addison is hopeful that the first ever monster could be allowed to attend college, because if her boyfriend zombie Zed wins the Championship football game, then he will get a scholarship to Mountain College, and they can go to college together.
Things are changing in Seabrook. Eliza, Zed and Addison’s friend, is away on an internship at Z-Corp, the company that make the zombie Z-Bands. As the town gets excited for the Championship game, we see that the wolves’ moonstone necklaces are acting weird and meteors keep appearing in the sky. But there’s no time to think about that, because the group need wolf pack leader Willa’s help in rallying the team before they get on the bus to head to the football game. Recruiters for Mountain College have also arrived to watch Zed, despite the fact they are clearly terrified of monsters! More meteors fly across the sky, but nobody is particularly concerned.
Suddenly, as Zed attempts to speak to his recruiters, a huge UFO arrives in Seabrook, causing everyone to flee in terror. There is destruction as sparks and lightning fly everywhere, and technology cuts out all around. The residents of Seabrook are terrified, except for Addison who is fascinated. It soon becomes clear that aliens have landed in the town. The aliens find their scout ship and discover a video left behind by their Scout Commander, who tells them to find a new planet: Utopia. In Seabrook, the aliens must find the most precious thing there, as the map to Utopia is hidden within it. The aliens say they come in peace, and lie that they are here for the National Cheer Off, which Addison has organised, however, the town are suspicious and the aliens are arrested by the Z-Patrol.
Addison’s parents, along with others in the town, state that they should force the aliens to leave, but Addison says everyone is invited to the Cheer Off, so they should be allowed to stay. Despite being able to get out of their restraints, much to the surprise of the Seabrook citizens, the aliens comply with law enforcement and wait to be questioned. Zed talks alien A-Spen in an interview room, saying they need to leave because they’ve just ruined his chance of attending Mountain College. A-Spen mentally researches another way for Zed to be accepted into his dream college, and they say there is an exceptional student scholarship, without any discrimination against monsters, so Zed should just be exceptional! It is eventually decided that the aliens can stay, but only for the Cheer Off.
The next day, the aliens arrive at Seabrook High School, having turned off their “emotional suppressors”. The aliens are intelligent but clueless to normal life, even struggling to pull open doors. Addison’s classmates still don’t trust these aliens, but Addison tells them not to be concerned about them. However, Zed is concerned because he learns from Eliza – who is rolling around school in a robot body with a screen for a face so she can be around for her friends – that his grades keep changing and he is slowly dropping down in the class ranking, making him seem less than exceptional. He discovers this is because of A-Lan, one of the aliens. A-Lan keeps beating all Zed’s sports records too, because it turns out, without his suppressor, A-Lan is actually really competitive…Meanwhile, A-Spen is discovering what it feels like to have a crush. A-Spen goes to Addison to discuss this feeling further, where it is revealed to her, Willa, Wynter, and Bree that A-Spen has a crush on Zed! They quickly tell them they can’t feel like that, because Zed is Addison’s boyfriend. A-Spen lets it go, for now.
Addison and the cheerleaders then see the aliens practising an impressive cheer routine, shocking everyone since who knew aliens could be cheerleaders? The Seabrook Cheer Squad decide they have to do a really big trick in order to win the Cheer Cup. But the aliens don’t even care about the Cheer Off, and just want to find their map to Utopia, even if their feelings of love, competition, and destruction of humans in the case of A-Li, are getting in the way. They learn from Zed that the moonstone is allegedly the most precious thing in Seabrook, so they head straight for it in the town centre, where it is now based.
The moonstone is indeed precious to the wolves, so much so that they have a protective forcefield around it so nobody can touch it. A-Lan is hurt by this forcefield, but the aliens manage to figure out that there is no map here anyway. They get spooked by the arrival of the werewolves and ask their Mothership to beam them up, but it won’t help them, due to their rudeness and ungratefulness to her. The aliens hide from the wolves, until Mothership decides their suffering should be ended and does beam them up into the ship.
Except Addison is randomly beamed up too. Zed is here as well, although only because A-Spen invited him there. The two meet up with the three aliens, who tell them that they are searching for a new home after their home planet was destroyed due to environmental issues. Aliens don’t like conflict so nothing was done to solve these issues before it was too late. One of their scouts crash-landed in Seabrook and hid a map here to help them find a new planet. After Zed hits their computer, as it has been malfunctioning for a while, the scout’s video plays to them. She recounts that a man called Eli hid her in Seabrook after she was unable to return to their planet. She kept her identity hidden but learnt to live in Seabrook, even discovering a passion for cheerleading and created the Cheer Cup. It is also discovered that this woman’s hair was white and that her and Eli went on to have a daughter called Missy. This is a shock to everyone as Addison has white hair and her mother is called Missy. This can’t just be a coincidence; Addison is part-alien!
The aliens pass Addison something to see if she has any power like them. Sadly, Addison is shown not to have a spark, so is not a true alien and cannot travel with them. Addison and Zed leave the ship, with Addison feeling distraught at the rejection. The aliens look into the Seabrook Cheer Cup further, and find it is made up of materials from their planet, so this must be the map. They vow to win it so they can get to Utopia at last.
The next day is the day of Zed’s college interview but he’s stressed, feeling the pressure to get into Mountain College so he and Addison can be together. Everyone tries to to calm him down, reminding Zed that that he is definitely “exceptional” enough for Mountain College. The interviewer arrives looking scared and is invited into Zed’s home for the interview. However, to make everything go wrong, Addison’s alien spark randomly starts firing and her spark messes with Zed’s Z-Band, causing him to “zombie out”. The interviewer rushes out of Zed’s house, but is stopped from leaving Seabrook by Zed, who calmly pleads his case to her. She then leaves the town, with Zed’s college future uncertain.
At the Cheer Off, Addison realises that the Cheer Cup is important to the aliens and knows that whether she wins it or they win it, they’ll be able to find their way to Utopia. However, Bucky has picked up a piece of alien technology, which the wolves look over. They pass it to robot Eliza who tries to hack it but cannot. Wyatt tries using his moonstone necklace and it helps Eliza access the tech. This technology shows mind probe scans, which, amongst other things, reveal that Wyatt likes Eliza! Eliza says she likes him too. But most importantly, the scans prove that the aliens are lying; they aren’t in Seabrook for the Cheer Off. The group alert the Z-Patrol about the aliens. But Zed, who just got a call saying he got in to Mountain College, sees them arrive, and warns the aliens that they have to hide.
The aliens are disqualified from the competition for not getting on stage in time, so Addison starts to feel the pressure to win the Cheer Cup. Luckily, the squad is well-rehearsed and she lands her big trick. The Seabrook Cheer Squad are the winners.
Outside the competition, the wolves discover the aliens trying to escape and go to attack them. Addison comes over with the Cheer Cup and gives it to the aliens. However, there is no map to Utopia here either. They try to get the Mothership to beam them up but this power reacts with the wolves’ moonstones causing an outage. Zed and his sister Zoe start to zombie out, but Addison tells everyone to stop and reveals that she is an alien, like A-Lan, A-Spen, and A-Li. The alien technology properly transforms her into an alien, shocking the town. Addison’s mother, Missy, arrives to tell her the truth, that they are both part-alien. Her mother also says that Addison’s grandmother used to say Addison was “the most precious thing”. The aliens realise that Addison must have the map to Utopia in her DNA. Zed thinks this means everything is sorted and everything can go back to normal but apparently Addison can’t just delve into her brain and write down the co-ordinates to Utopia; the map is dynamic and always changing so she’ll have to leave with them.
Addison prepares to leave with the aliens, and is told they must leave soon as the Mothership is partially damaged. All of Addison’s friends arrive to say goodbye to her, with Zed stating if Addison has to leave, then he will go with her. The aliens say he’ll never survive the journey so he regretfully agrees that he’ll have to stay in Seabrook without her… But the Mothership still won’t take off, and the aliens don’t know how to fix it. Zed and the zombies and wolves come on board to try and help recharge the ship, using the power from their moonstones and their Z-Bands. But they need someone to direct the power. The aliens ask Addison to be the bridge to do this, since she is half-human so hopefully, she won’t die from the electrical charge…Huh? Addison gives it a shot, but she cannot do it on her own. So, Zed says he’ll help her, despite the fact he could also die…Great! Thankfully, there is no death and the ship is successfully recharged and about to set off. All the non-aliens hurry to get off the ship before it takes off, and Zed and Addison have a tearful kiss goodbye.
With the ship and Addison gone forever, the town feel very depressed about their friend leaving. A little while later, it’s time to get back to school for Graduation, though it’s not easy to feel very celebratory. The group get together and talk about what Addison did for them, and how she is the reason they are all friends.
Meanwhile on the Mothership, Addison tries to explain the concept of Seabrook to the aliens, by showing them some of their mind probes, which show memories from the last two years. Addison tells them that without the conflicts they’ve experienced, ironically, Seabrook would never have been as harmonious a place as it is now. They start to discuss what Utopia actually is, before realising that the map is showing Earth. Addison’s grandmother felt this is where the aliens should live. The Mothership makes a U-Turn.
Back in Seabrook, Zed and the others are shocked to see Addison back but are glad that she and the aliens are going to be staying, for good this time. An animated ending sequence shows the Mothership landing and becoming a house for the aliens. It also says that Seabrook has become a haven for all kinds of creatures, even mermaids! Everything has once again ended happily, with another species being welcomed to Seabrook.
In a brief end credits scene, we see Bucky board the Mothership and activates its launch so that he can bring cheer to all of the galaxy! Except, is Bucky part-alien or not? He claims he’s not, but he is Addison’s cousin, and if he isn’t then he won’t survive travel on the Mothership apparently. That could be Bucky gone for good… Oh well. Farewell, Bucky!
CHARACTERS & CAST
Once again, the majority of the cast of ZOMBIES and ZOMBIES 2 returned to ZOMBIES 3, with the addition of three new characters of a different kind, this time being aliens.
Zed and Addison are still together by the time of ZOMBIES 3, which is seemingly taking place during their Senior Year, so it’s a lot of talk about college and wanting to go to the same college, as we see time and time again in teen movies. Addison has already been accepted to Mountain College, but as a zombie, Zed has more obstacles to overcome to get in to college. He plans to simply get a football scholarship but thanks to the aliens landing, that avenue gets blocked off. He then tries to show the college he is an exceptional student, but because of Addison’s weird alien powers, that interview is almost ruined too. However, as we all expected, Zed also gets into Mountain College. So, their future is set, right? Well, no, because once again, the aliens are trying to ruin Zed’s life, by taking Addison away, since she is revealed to be an alien. Addison decides she has to help the aliens find Utopia, so they make the decision to…I don’t really know. It’s not a break-up exactly, but I think another galaxy is probably a bit too long-distance to make it work! Anyway, they are apart for a couple of days, and then Addison comes back to Seabrook with the aliens and their plan to attend college together can still go ahead. Hurrah! Sorry if that sounds sarcastic, but their relationship has just become a little bit too perfect for me at this point. Adorable couple, but come on, Disney Channel; did you have to make it that easy for them? Even Troy and Gabriella had more conflict than this!
Anyway, after playing Zed and Addison in ZOMBIES 3, Milo Manheim and Meg Donnelly’s stars have really been on the rise. Manheim went on to be cast in Season 2 of the Disney+ show Doogie Kameāloha (2021-23), appearing as Nico alongside Peyton Elizabeth Lee, who later both starred in the Disney Original Movie Prom Pact (2023). Outside of Disney, Manheim has been playing Wally in the Paramount+ series School Spirits (2023-present) opposite Peyton List, another Disney Channel alum. He was also cast as Ryan in the horror movie Thanksgiving (2023), and as Joseph in the musical nativity movie Journey to Bethlehem (2023). Meanwhile, for Disney, Donnelly was cast in the recurring role of Val in Season 3 of the Disney+ series High School Musical: The Musical: The Series (2019-23). Outside of Disney, she was cast as Mary Campbell in the CW series The Winchesters (2022-23) and voiced Kara Zor-El / Supergirl in the animated superhero films Legion of Super-Heroes (2023) and Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths (2024).
For Zed and Addison’s friends, let’s start with Bree, Eliza, and Bonzo. Eliza is not seen in person in ZOMBIES 3, having decided to work as an intern at Z-Corp instead of attending school for her Senior Year. Not that that is a big surprise since she is a very smart, and driven character. Eliza is still on hand to help her friends figure out what the aliens are trying to do there, in her robot body. Bree and Bonzo are still in a relationship and both still on the Cheer Squad, but other than that, they don’t have a huge amount to do with the story of ZOMBIES 3 once again.
Carla Jeffrey and James Godfrey returned as Bree and Bonzo respectively, as did Kylee Russell as Eliza. There was actually a reason why Eliza was only seen virtually in ZOMBIES 3, and that is because Russell was pregnant at the time of ZOMBIES 3 being filmed in Summer 2021, so we only see her upper half for the most part. Now, before anyone starts to scream “scandal”, there was no scandal here. Russell was in her 20s at the time of filming; remember, she only plays a teenager on TV. Russell was working separately from the cast, making this a different sort of challenge for her, as she had to just talk to a screen and was not able to feed off the cast’s energy[1].
After the events of ZOMBIES 2, Willa, Wynter, and Wyatt are now living peacefully in Seabrook. They have gotten involved in school life; despite saying they had no intention of doing that in ZOMBIES 3, and they seem quite settled. Their precious moonstone is no longer hidden underground, but is displayed in the centre of Seabrook, being fiercely protected by the pack. The wolves are incredibly suspicious of what the aliens are doing in Seabrook, probably because they know that when they themselves first came to Seabrook, they hid their real motivation for being there from everyone else! They are initially concerned about what the aliens might do to the moonstone, but then they just want the aliens out of there, as they realise the aliens have been lying about what they’re doing in Seabrook and have been taking scans of people’s brains to gain information, which is sneaky and dodgy. In the end though, the wolves accept the aliens wanted to find themselves a new home and are glad to find that they have returned with Addison to Seabrook to live in harmony with them.
Chandler Kinney, Ariel Martin, and Pearce Joza returned to their roles of Willa, Wynter, and Wyatt respectively. After ZOMBIES 3, Kinney was cast as Tabitha Haworthe in the Pretty Little Liars reboot, which ran for two seasons from 2022 until 2024. She also appeared on Dancing with the Stars (2005-present) for their 33rd season in late 2024, coming in third place. Ariel Martin was cast as Jasmine in the movie Oracle (2023) and as Megan Kaminski in Suncoast (2024). Joza is set to appear as Moose in the indie comedy movie Bad Counselors.
Bucky and his three Aceys also returned for ZOMBIES 3, although there seems to be some sort of divide between them now, since Bucky is Class President, and the Aceys are still part of the Seabrook Cheer Squad, which is now being led by Addison. Bucky still tries to take credit for cheerleading activities, like the Cheer Off, but the Aceys quickly point out that it is all thanks to Addison, proving this split between them. They also question Bucky about his “alien heritage”, which they’d never have done previously; you don’t talk back to Bucky!
Trevor Tordjman returned to play Bucky, and went on to be cast as Parker in the Disney Channel series Bunk’d (2015-24) from Season 5 until Season 7, its finale season. Emilia McCarthy returned as Lacey, going on to appear as Madison Van Camp in the Canadian medical drama SkyMed (2022-present). Noah Zulfikar came back to appear as Kevin. After ZOMBIES 3, Zulfikar could be seen as MK in the movie Village Keeper (2024). Jasmine Renée Thomas was also back as Lacey, rounding out the Aceys trio.
Now to the new characters, the three aliens: A-Spen, A-Lan, and A-Li. If you want to know how to pronounce their names, just pretend the hyphen isn’t there. I guess it just looks more “spacey” to put hyphens in the names!
Although the aliens’ primary mission is to find their map to Utopia, each of them can’t help but be distracted by some sort of “human emotion”. For A-Spen, that emotion is love, as they develop a crush on Zed. A-Spen has plans for Zed to potentially fall in love with them, since Addison may end up at a different college from him anyway, but A-Spen decides to “break up” with him, not wanting there to be any complications from their “relationship”. A-Spen is probably the alien we see the most of in ZOMBIES 3, as they seem to be the leader of the group, having the most to say, for example.
A-Spen is actually the first leading non-binary character for a Disney Channel movie, and was played by Terry Hu, who is a non-binary actor. After seeing messages from the fans, the milestone moment felt very real to them and they were glad to be a part of creating a character that resonates with a community[2]. Hu went on to be cast in the recurring role of Addison in Seasons 3 and 4 of the Netflix series Never Have I Ever (2020-23), which was co-created by Mindy Kaling, as well as be cast as Angie in the Hulu film Prom Dates (2024).
A-Lan spends much of his time giving in to the competitive emotion that he has found himself absorbed in during his time in Seabrook. He starts by completing multiple school courses in just a few minutes, which pushes Zed’s grades down in the overall school ranking, and then decides to take all of Zed’s school sport records, just for fun!
Matt Cornett was cast as A-Lan, having become well known for his role as E.J. Caswell in the Disney+ series High School Musical: The Musical: The Series (2019-23), though he had also been cast in the recurring role of Zach in the Nickelodeon series Bella and the Bulldogs (2015-16), even winning a Young Artist Award for this role, prior to that. Since ZOMBIES 3, Cornett has been cast as Max Warren in the Hulu film Summer of 69 (2025) and will appear as Grayson in the upcoming comedy film Bad Counselors, which will see him reunite with ZOMBIES 3 co-star Pearce Joza.
A-Li is a more intense alien, seemingly letting her emotions get the better of her down on Seabrook, as she frequently talks about destroying things and people. To be honest, A-Li seems to be the one we see the less of in the alien trio, which is a shame as I feel that with the werewolves, we had an equal amount of time with each of them, but I didn’t get to know A-Li, or even A-Lan, that well.
Kyra Tantao was cast as A-Li. Tantao has gone on to be cast in the recurring role of Nicole in the Disney+ reboot series Goosebumps (2023-present) and also appeared as Sonia Carter in a few episodes of The Better Sister (2025), an Amazon Prime series that starred Jessica Biel and Elizabeth Banks.
Finally, one other character to mention is the Mothership, who acts like a passive-aggressive mother, checking that her aliens have everything they need for school, and punishing them when they behave rudely! The Mothership was actually voiced by RuPaul, with this voice role only being announced just a couple of months prior to ZOMBIES 3 being released. RuPaul is best known for hosting the series RuPaul’s Drag Race, which has been airing in the US since 2009, but has since become a global TV franchise with numerous different series and spin-offs.
MUSIC
Personally, I think the soundtrack for ZOMBIES 3 is the weakest of the soundtracks when compared to ZOMBIES and ZOMBIES 2. ZOMBIES 2 by far has the best soundtrack, with plenty of original songs, and the only reason I’m not a huge fan of the ZOMBIES soundtrack is because it relies on too many reprises, meaning there are actually only five original songs.
ZOMBIES 3 doesn’t quite match that, although there are three reprises, because it contains eight original songs that appear in the movie, and one other that is from the “Lost Song Edition” of the movie which aired exclusively on Disney Channel. A music video for it was released online. Overall, I like less songs on the ZOMBIES 3 soundtrack than the other two before it and it’s only after doing this review that I can say I like more than one song; a couple of others have since grown on me.
The soundtrack for ZOMBIES 3 was released on 15th July 2022, the same day the film premiered on Disney+. Like the first ZOMBIES before it, the ZOMBIES 3 soundtrack hit the No. 1 position on the US Billboard Kid Albums chart, and charted at No. 3 on the US Billboard Top Soundtracks chart. However, it only peaked at No. 79 on the US Billboard 200 chart, whereas the ZOMBIES soundtrack peaked at No. 55, and ZOMBIES 2 hit No. 44.
Going in movie order, the first song we hear in ZOMBIES 3 is “Fired Up (Reprise)”, a song we heard in the first movie. To be fair, schools have their own songs, and cheerleaders use specific cheers for their school teams, plus I always did like “Fired Up”, so I’ll let them off on this one. “Fired Up (Reprise)” is a shortened version of “Fired Up” from ZOMBIES, written by Mitch Allan and Nikki Leonti, and was used for the pep rally prior to the big football game. It sees Addison and her cheerleaders pumping up the students and the team.
Next up is “Alien Invasion”, which explains how the Seabrook residents are feeling when a random UFO appears in the sky and aliens land in their town. It shows the town being destroyed by electrical currents, and the Seabrook students running in fear, although they do admit that it is kind of cool. I don’t like “Alien Invasion” at all, and found it a bit cringey to listen to, to be honest, especially when Addison calls Zed “boo” for the first time ever…I think the fact I already didn’t like aliens being introduced to this story did not help with my disliking of this song. “Alien Invasion” was written by Antonina Armato, Thomas Sturges, IN-Q, and Tim James. It was performed by the entire cast.
Then, we have “Ain’t No Doubt About It”, another duet for Addison and Zed, performed by Milo Manheim and Meg Donnelly. Instead of this being a simple love ballad, this song talks about some of their insecurities the two of them have, as they potentially are not heading to college together, and how they hope their relationship will still be strong even if they don’t. But this song is still upbeat, and they only talk about their concerns in little asides that the other cannot hear! This song is one of the songs in the movie that grew on me. It was written by Josh Cumbee and Jordan Powers.
Following that is “Utopia”, written by Cas Weinbrun and performed by Matt Cornett, Terry Hu, and Kyra Tantao as aliens A-Lan, A-Spen, and A-Li. This song is used for the aliens’ Cheer Championship routine, which we hear when the “team” are rehearsing, and are actually pretty good, worrying Addison and the Seabrook Cheer Squad that they may not win the Cheer Cup. It’s not much of a song, with very few lyrics other than “Utopia”. I don’t have much else to say on it, really.
Then, there is “Come On Out”, which has become a favourite song of mine in ZOMBIES 3. I have always liked the wolves so maybe that’s why! “Come On Out” is performed by Chandler Kinney, Ariel Martin, and Pearce Joza as wolves Willa, Wynter, and Wyatt, and sees the wolves trying to sniff out the aliens who have been around their moonstone; they want to know what exactly the aliens have been doing to it. It was written by Dennis Baffoe, Tim Boomsma, Gustavo Branger, Sophia Ayana, Avalan, Galeyn Tenhaeff, Mohamed Alitou, Maruja Retana, and Candace Sosa.
After that, we get to my favourite song in the film, and that is “Exceptional Zed”. In “Exceptional Zed”, Zed is having a crisis of confidence before meeting with his college interviewer, with this being seen as his last chance to get into Mountain College to be with Addison, and become the first zombie to attend. All Zed’s friends and the town residents come out to tell him why he’s so great in a bid to boost his mood. It’s nice to see everyone coming out to help Zed after he has helped do so much for Seabrook. “Exceptional Zed” was written by Mitch Allan, Chantry Johnson, and Michelle Zarlenga, with Milo Manheim leading the performance of this song, although much of the cast join in too. This song is followed by “Exceptional Zed (Reprise)” after Zed’s interview goes wrong thanks to Addison’s new “alien spark”. Zed is pleading his case to the interviewer about why zombies and monsters are special and should not be pushed aside just because they’re different.
Next is “I’m Finally Me”, which is Addison’s song, talking about how pleased she is that she has found where she belongs, after learning she is part-alien. It also sees Addison feeling strong and powerful as she leads her cheerleading squad on to the stage for the Cheer Championships, ready to land that huge trick and win the Cheer Cup. The song was written by Karl Kimmel and Cas Weinbrun, and was performed by Meg Donnelly.
Following in the footsteps of ZOMBIES and ZOMBIES 2, it wouldn’t be a ZOMBIES film without a new version of Addison and Zed’s love song “Someday”. In this case, we have “Someday (Z3)”, this being the first time a version of “Someday” is not sung only by Zed and Addison. This is a whole cast number, which they sing just after the town has said goodbye to Addison and she has flown off with the aliens. “Someday (Z3)” made a few tears jump to my eyes, I’m not going to lie, so I did actually like this one, probably more than the original version of the song. I like songs with some real emotion. “Someday” was written by Paula Winger and Dustin Burnett.
The final song in the movie is “Nothing But Love”, an upbeat finale number with all the cast, much like “One For All” in ZOMBIES 2. This is a pretty good song in the movie and it felt like a very fitting ending to the movie franchise, seeing all the aliens, wolves, zombies, and humans happy together. It’s very much a Disney Channel Musical song, and I mean that in the best way possible! “Nothing But Love” was written by Chen Neeman.
The other song to mention is that “lost song”, which was only released with the Disney Channel premiere of ZOMBIES 3 on 12th August 2022. This song is “What is this Feeling”. Unlike with other “Lost Song Editions” of Disney Channel musicals, where a deleted song was basically just put back in to the film to make a bonus edition of the movie, “What is this Feeling” seems to have only been included as its own music video, premiering at the end of the Disney Channel movie, instead of during the scene where it would fit: when A-Spen talks to Addison, asking why she feels so strange. It turns out she has a crush on Zed, much to everyone’s surprise. But I can’t be sure because I don’t have access to the Disney Channel version. The song is playing as an instrumental in the background of this scene in the normal version of ZOMBIES 3 anyway. This music video sees Bree, Wynter, Willa, and Addison explaining to A-Spen what love is. I didn’t like this song at all. It just didn’t feel necessary. “What is this Feeling” was written by Theron Feemster, Jordan Powers, and Bekah Novi, and was performed by Carla Jeffrey as Bree; Chandler Kinney as Willa; Ariel Martin as Wynter; Meg Donnelly as Addison; and Terry Hu as A-Spen.
George S. Clinton and Amit May Cohen are credited as the composers of the score for ZOMBIES 3, continuing their work from the first two movies. A medley of the score of ZOMBIES 3 is featured as a track on the ZOMBIES 3 soundtrack.
PRODUCTION
The premiere telecasts of both ZOMBIES and ZOMBIES 2 in 2018 and 2020 respectively ranked as TV’s No. 1 movie amongst the demographics of Kids 6-11 and Tweens 9-14 for the entire year they debuted. Music videos from both movies had amassed over 1 billion views on YouTube, and their respective soundtracks reached new heights on various album charts, including the ZOMBIES soundtrack debuting at No. 1 on the US Billboard Kids Albums Chart, and ZOMBIES 2 reaching No. 1 on iTunes Soundtrack Chart. ZOMBIES 2 content itself generated over 50 million views on digital platforms[3].
The ZOMBIES cast had also been featured in various Disney projects and promotional activities for their parks and resorts over the years since ZOMBIES premiered back in February 2018. That unaired and later reworked Disney Channel pilot Zombies & Cheerleaders had morphed into something so much bigger than was ever anticipated.
In ZOMBIES 3, as with the other two ZOMBIES movies, something knew had to added to Seabrook. It was decided that this should be aliens – and with those meteors flying down to Earth at the end of ZOMBIES 2 and making Addison’s hair glow blue, it made sense. But in so many other ways, it made no sense to include aliens. Regardless, the writers David Light and Joseph Raso chose to focus their new story on these aliens. Because aliens have superhuman strength, different emotional capabilities, and highly advanced technology, it was felt that the humans could learn from the aliens in that respect, and the aliens learnt from the residents of Seabrook too, in terms of figuring out how to behave in this world, as well as learning about new emotions they hadn’t experienced before arriving there. It was said that the wolves in ZOMBIES 2 were meant to represent indigenous people, whose safety and security had been threatened by the arrival of settlers. ZOMBIES 3’s aliens could be seen as a metaphor for the arrival of asylum seekers, as the aliens here do not have a home due to environmental destruction and are searching for a new one. Also much like the other movies, the aliens add an extra layer of conflict to Seabrook, disrupting the high schoolers and potentially Zed’s college dream, as well as potentially taking Addison, their most warm-hearted and open resident, away from them[4].
Paul Hoen returned to work on ZOMBIES 3 as the movie’s director, having directed both of the other movies. Hoen has directed numerous Disney Channel Original Movies, both musical and non-musical, such as Eddie’s Million Dollar Cook-Off (2003), Jump In! (2007), Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam (2010) and The Cheetah Girls: One World (2008).
Also just like the other two movies, ZOMBIES 3 returned to Ontario and Toronto in Canada to film. Since the area of Seabrook remains as the setting of this movie, I can assume that many of the filming locations remain the same. For example, The University of Toronto Mississauga once again was used to film some of the Seabrook High School scenes, as it was in ZOMBIES 2[5]. Sugar Beach in Toronto makes an appearance once again, most notably in the song “Exceptional Zed”. It would seem that the expanded Zombietown set was built on the border of Pickering and Markham, both towns in Ontario, Canada[6]. Cherry Beach in Toronto makes up the outside of Seabrook High in both the first two movies and as Seabrook High is still a location in ZOMBIES 3, I can only assume it was used here as well[7].
With a new movie comes new sets including a growing Zombietown. Zombietown is now a town square, complete with new businesses, like the school football coach’s big froyo store, an upgrade from his cart in ZOMBIES 2, a bank, houses for the wolves, and a wolves’ hair salon. We get a proper look inside Zed’s house for the first time since the opening scene of ZOMBIES. It’s a bit cluttered and full of a real mix of furniture and ornaments. This is completely different from the alien spaceship, which is clean, minimalist, and decorated in silvers and blues, looking similar to the TARDIS in later series of Doctor Who[8].
With the addition of the aliens, new costumes needed to be created for them. As is fairly common when portraying aliens on screen, their costumes consist of silvers and blues, these being uniform and geometric in nature, with sharp angles and definitely style over comfort. They also each have hexagonal markings next to their left eyes. Addison gets a makeover to match them later on in the movie when she transforms into an alien. Meg Donnelly was pretty lucky, getting to be a cheerleader, and a wolf, and an alien! The only thing she never got to dress up as was a zombie. The aliens also have blue hair. Whereas Matt Cornett and Kyra Tantao settled for blue wigs, despite Tantao’s hair taking over an hour to fit into a wig cap, Terry Hu decided to dye their hair blue. It took nine hours to do initially and the chemicals in the dye made them feel ill after a while! On a cast day out to Niagara Falls on a particularly rainy day, Hu’s hair dye began to run down their face too. I think I would’ve just settled for the wig like the other too; much less hassle[9].
Everyone else’s costumes got a bit of an update too, like the wolves, with Wyatt wearing rings now, and Willa has a new faux fur neck lined hand painted purple vest. The zombies got new costumes once again, although still favouring those dark colours and customisations. Zed, for example, has a couple of different costumes in this film, including a tartan-printed jacket, and a letterman jacket to go along with the skinny jeans he seems to like. The cheerleading outfits have once again changed. For the Cheer Off, they are predominantly pink all over, instead of having that white skirt[10].
As ZOMBIES 3 was filmed in 2021, still when some COVID-19 procedures were being followed, in behind-the-scenes footage, you can see that the cast had to wear masks or visors whilst in hair and makeup and between scenes. The cast and crew had to be their own bubble as well to minimise any risk of being in contact with someone who had the virus.
Masks were also required during dance rehearsals. Draico Johnson was the choreographer on ZOMBIES 3. Terry Hu, Kyra Tantao, and Matt Cornett, the alien cast, were not known for dancing much before appearing in ZOMBIES 3 and were encouraged and motivated by Johnson’s choreographer. He was incredibly popular with the cast and was happy to take on advice or comments from the cast to help choreograph to their specific characters’ personalities[11].
RECEPTION
The premiere for ZOMBIES 3 was held on 11th July 2022, with the blue carpet being rolled out at Barker Hanger in Santa Monica. This was the biggest ZOMBIES premiere that the cast had attended, with celebrities like Rachel Bilson, Tiffani Thiessen, and Hayden Christensen reportedly in attendance with their families, alongside Disney stars like Kylie Cantrall, Peyton Elizabeth Lee, and Dara Renée. After COVID-19 protocols, which the cast had been subject to whilst filming ZOMBIES 3, it was probably nice to see people at an event like this again[12].
Strangely for a Disney Channel movie, ZOMBIES 3 was actually released on Disney+ first, on 15th July 2022. Now that many international Disney Channels have shut down, there is little choice but to premiere these types of movies on Disney+, however, it seems to be standard now that Disney Channel US will premiere the movie a day or two before it gets to Disney+. ZOMBIES 3 didn’t air on Disney Channel until 12th August 2022.
According to the Nielsen Streaming Chart, ZOMBIES 3 was No. 7 in their list of Top 10 Movies for the week of 11th to 17th July 2022[13]. It would seem that ZOMBIES 3 did less well on its Disney Channel premiere, reportedly only gaining 0.3 million viewers. But I can’t find anything definitively stating that, and it wouldn’t be overly surprising after already being made available on Disney+.
In terms of reviews, once again, these were mixed for ZOMBIES 3, and even amongst fans, many stated that ZOMBIES 3 was the weakest film of the trilogy, something I most definitely agree with. Some were disappointed with the decision to add aliens to the storyline, as many had been expecting the inclusion of vampires. I too was unconvinced by the choice to include aliens in this movie, but not because I was hoping for something else. I just felt that aliens did not fit in this world that had been created; aliens are typically used in science-fiction films, whereas the ZOMBIES franchise felt very much like fantasy. The blending of the two genres simply didn’t work in my opinion. Alongside the storyline not being as good, many felt the songs were just not as good as the other two movies, and that ZOMBIES 3 wasn’t as funny. It was also mentioned that ZOMBIES 3 was an unnecessary movie, and even if it was meant to end the trilogy, it wasn’t a good enough ending.
On the other side, some audience members felt ZOMBIES 3 was a good ending. I would agree to a point, in that ZOMBIES 3 did wrap up the story of Seabrook and didn’t leave any unanswered questions for me. The chemistry between Meg Donnelly and Milo Manheim as Addison and Zed was praised once again, and there were some progressive moves towards diversity in ZOMBIES 3, such as the inclusion of a non-binary character, and the tiniest of suggestion that Willa and A-Li might like each other. ZOMBIES 3’s music was considered the best part of the movie for others as well.
Outside of reviews, ZOMBIES 3 was nominated for four awards. One of these was a GLADD Media Award for Outstanding Kids and Family Programming – Live Action, however it lost to Netflix’s Heartstopper (2022-present), in what was quite a crowded category. At the CAFTCAD Awards, The Canadian Alliance for Film and Television Costume Arts and Design, ZOMBIES 3 was nominated for Excellence in Crafts – Costume Illustration, losing out to miniseries Station Eleven (2021-22). Like ZOMBIES 2 before it, ZOMBIES 3 was nominated for Best Editing in a Live Action Family Series or Movie for Lisa Binkley at the Canadian Cinema Editors Awards, being beaten by High School (2022). ZOMBIES 3 was also nominated at the 2nd Children’s and Family Emmy Awards for Outstanding Sound Mixing and Sound Editing, but this time it lost to the rebooted Are You Afraid of the Dark? (2019-22).
LEGACY
In order to build anticipation for ZOMBIES 3’s release, many new experiences and specials were created.
Much like the cast of ZOMBIES and ZOMBIES 2 had done before, by competing in two Disney Holiday Magic Quest television specials for Disney Channel, which saw them complete tasks across the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida overnight, the same thing happened with the ZOMBIES 3 cast.
This time, because ZOMBIES 3 was being released over the summer, the special was called Disney Summer Magic Quest and it first aired in June 2022 on Disney Channel, before coming to Disney+ in August, once ZOMBIES 3 had already aired. The Disney Summer Magic Quest took place in Epcot this time, with the Special Olympics being the recipient of the charity donation. The cast who went head-to-head in this competition were Meg Donnelly and Pearce Joza, who play Addison and Wyatt, on one team, and Kylee Russell and Matt Cornett on the other; they play Eliza and A-Lan. Milo Manheim, who played Zed, led some of the challenges. In a change from the previous two specials, there were no Disney villains present here, and the team were doing the same challenges, instead of separate ones, with one team gaining an advantage over the other based on certain tasks. I think Disney Summer Magic Quest was probably also partly used to advertise the Walt Disney World 50th Anniversary Celebration that took place between October 2021 and ran until early 2023. It saw the cast ride Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, which opened in October 2021, and Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, which opened in May 2022 as well, so it could be seen as a way of promoting Walt Disney World’s two newest rides at the time. The finale of the quest also saw Harmonious, the Epcot fireworks show created for Walt Disney World’s 50th Anniversary, being set off, alongside the lighting of the Beacons of Light at all four parks, which was also a 50th Anniversary offering. These Disney Magic Quests were cross-promotion at their finest, but were still enjoyable to watch.
Continuing at the Disney Parks, to celebrate the release of ZOMBIES 3, there was a 20-minute stage show titled ZOM-BEATZ BASH which ran for a limited time at both Downtown Disney at Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, and at the Disney Springs Marketplace Stage at Walt Disney World. Since ZOMBIES 3 was airing on two different platforms on two separate occasions, ZOM-BEATZ BASH filled the month-long gap between the dates. This show ran at Disneyland from 29th to 31st July 2022, and then at Walt Disney World from 5th to 14th August 2022. The stage show included clips from ZOMBIES 3, as well as music from that movie, alongside fan-favourite songs from ZOMBIES and ZOMBIES 2[14]. Chandler Kinney and Trevor Tordjman even showed up to surprise fans at Downtown Disney in Disneyland during the one weekend it was there, as did Matt Cornett and Pearce Joza when the dance party came to Walt Disney World. ZOM-BEATZ BASH made a return to Walt Disney World in 2022 as an offering for Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party at Magic Kingdom, and was housed at Cosmic Ray’s Starlight Café. It returned again in 2023, but on the Rockettower Plaza Stage in Tomorrowland. It did not come back in 2024, being replaced by the DescenDance Party, as promotion for Descendants: The Rise of Red (2024).
ZOMBIES came back to Disneyland in 2024, in the form of the High School Musical / ZOMBIES Pep Rally. This was a mini-parade with dancers and one float that went along a parade route, stopping at regular intervals for a roughly 10-minute dance party with fans. It was not an entirely new idea as High School Musical Pep Rallies used to run at Disney’s Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World in Florida as well as Disneyland back in the late 2000s to advertise Disney Channel’s movie trilogy. In the High School Musical / ZOMBIES Pep Rally, the opening and closing song of the performance was a mash-up of High School Musical’s “We’re All in This Together” and ZOMBIES 2’s “Like the Zombies Do”. Other songs from the High School Musical franchise included “Getcha Head in the Game”, “Breaking Free”, and “High School Musical”. ZOMBIES fans could sing along to “BAMM”, “Someday”, and “Fired Up” as Seabrook High and East High students went “head-to-head”. This pep rally only ran for the Disneyland After Dark: Disney Channel Nite on 5th and 7th March 2024. As Disney Channel Nite did not return in 2025, nor did the High School Musical / ZOMBIES Pep Rally, but it could always come back at some point.
Then, back to Disney Channel for another television special. In this case, it was ZOMBI-Thon with Big City Greens, which aired in August 2022, a few days after ZOMBIES 3 had premiered on the channel. This saw the characters from the animated series Big City Greens (2018-present) have some fun with the ZOMBIES 3 cast. After recapping the events of the three ZOMBIES films with a short animated segment, it was then discovered that the Green family had “kidnapped” Milo Manheim and Meg Donnelly who appeared in this special in animated form. However, there were two short snippets that saw Cricket Green and Tilly Green “calling” members of the ZOMBIES cast, who answered as themselves, i.e., in live-action. There was also a “lip swap” segment, where the Big City Greens characters made up lines to match clips from the original ZOMBIES movie, as well as a “Broken Karaoke” parody song to “Ain’t No Doubt About It” from ZOMBIES 3. This 20-minute show ended with Meg and Milo parodying the Big City Greens theme tune, before leaving the area, being beamed up in a spaceship – despite Meg saying at the start of the show she wasn’t actually an alien.
The ZOMBIES 3 cast returned to promote their already-released movie at the D23 Expo on 10th September 2022 as well, performing “Alien Invasion” and “Ain’t No Doubt About It” from the movie on stage at the expo, which was held at the Anaheim Convention Center. This was part of the D23 Expo’s Disney Branded Television panel. Meg Donnelly was not there with the rest of the cast, which included Milo Manheim, Chandler Kinney, Matt Cornett, Terry Hu, and Kyra Tantao. Many expected there to be an announcement for ZOMBIES 4 at this panel, but none came[15].
But ZOMBIES fans were already aware of a new spin-off that would be coming to Disney Channel and Disney+, because ZOMBIES: The Re-Animated Series had been announced at the Annecy Film Festival in June 2022. As you’d expect, this was an animated series, with many of the cast returning to voice their characters in the series, although it would seem that A-Lan and A-Li and the Aceys did not feature in this series. A first series of shorts was released from July to December 2023, with a second series of 20 episodes being aired from June to December 2024 on Disney Channel, being released to Disney+ shortly after. The series took place after the events of ZOMBIES 3, with A-Spen taking everyone back in time so they could re-do Senior Year together in the second series. The first seemed to be all about summer vacation. ZOMBIES: The Re-Animated Series was nominated for Best Web/App Series – Branded at the Kidscreen Awards in 2025, but lost to Disney’s How NOT to Draw (2022-present) and LEGO City: No Limits (2023-24). It would appear that ZOMBIES: The Re-Animated Series has since been cancelled.
Topping off the ZOMBIES legacy was the February 2024 announcement that a ZOMBIES 4 was in the works, with the full title ZOMBIES 4: Dawn of the Vampires being announced in April 2024, giving those vampire-loving fans a reason to celebrate. It was also announced that Milo Manheim and Meg Donnelly were set to return to their roles as Zed and Addison. Many former cast members did not return for this new movie, except for Chandler Kinney as Willa, and Kylee Russell as Eliza.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Perhaps ZOMBIES 3 really should have been the end of ZOMBIES.
It showed Seabrook becoming a truly diverse and inclusive place, welcoming all manner of creatures and fantastical species to the town, and it saw Zed and Addison graduating high school alongside their classmates, before heading off to college. Disney Channel rarely follow their characters after they leave high school.
So, why make another one? Well, maybe Disney Channel wanted to appease the fans who had been expecting, if not begging, for vampires to be included in the ZOMBIES world. Or are they actually planning to follow in the footsteps of Descendants: The Rise of Red and allowing ZOMBIES 4 to be a reboot of sorts, where other movies will be made with a new cast? That remains to be seen.
I don’t like saying this because I really do like the cast members in the first three ZOMBIES films, but I’m not expecting too much from ZOMBIES 4: Dawn of the Vampires after the disappointment of ZOMBIES 3, and it feels unnecessary to have made another film.
I’ll have to see if ZOMBIES 4 surprises me, or confirms my fears: that ZOMBIES has become yet another Disney franchise that has been pushed too far.
REFERENCES
[1] Credit: Just Jared Jr, ‘Kylee Russell Opens Up About Filming ‘Zombies 3’ Away From the Rest of the Cast’, JustJaredJr.com, 15th July 2022.
[2] Credit: Caitlynn McDaniel, ‘Terry Hu Talks First Leading Non-Binary Character in Disney’s ‘Z-O-M-B-I-E-S 3’, Gayety.com, 25th July 2022.
[3] Credit: Disney, ‘“Zombies 3,” The Intergalactic Third Installment of Disney’s Hit Franchise Lands July 15, Exclusively On Disney+’, Press. DisneyPlus.com, 20th May 2022.
[4] Credit: Fred Topel, ‘Milo Manheim says Disney+’s ‘Zombies 3’ promotes healthy conflict’, UPI.com, 13th July 2022.
[5] Credit: Paige France, ‘Familiar Filming Sights As UTM Locations Rise To Stardom’, TheMedium.ca, 23rd August 2021.
[6] Credit: Glenn Hendry, ‘Zombies spotted on movie set at Pickering-Markham border’, Insauga.com, 6th August 2021.
[7] Credit: Varun Patel, ‘Where Was Disney’s ‘Zombies’ Shot?’, TheCinemaholic.com, 14th February 2020.
[8] Credit: Mark Hofeling, ‘Disney’s Z-O-M-B-I-E-S 3’, MarkHofeling.com, date unknown.
[9] Credit: Fred Topel, ‘Milo Manheim says Disney+’s ‘Zombies 3’ promotes healthy conflict’, UPI.com, 13th July 2022.
[10] Credit: Disney Channel, ‘ZOMBIES 3 Behind the Scenes I Who is the best dressed?! I Part 5’, Disney Channel Music YouTube Channel, 6th January 2023.
[11] Credit: Disney Channel, ‘ZOMBIES 3 Day in the Life I Part 2 I Time to Dance’, Disney Channel Music, 9th December 2022.
[12] Credit: Zach Johnson, ‘Three Cheers for the ZOMBIES 3 Premiere’, D23.com, 11th July 2022.
[13] Credit: Roger Palmer, ‘“Zombies 3” Debuts On The Nielsen Streaming Chart’, WhatsOnDisneyPlus.com, 12th August 2022.
[14] Credit: Author Unknown, ‘ZOM-BEATZ BASH Comes to Downtown Disney, Disney Springs’, SmallWorldVacations.com, date unknown.
[15] Credit: Just Jared Jr, ‘‘Zombies 3’ Cast Perform ‘Alien Invasion’ at D23 Expo (Video)’, JustJaredJr.com, 12th September 2022.
The Disney Purist 