1. BACKGROUND
2. PLOT
3. CHARACTERS & CAST
4. MUSIC
5. PRODUCTION
6. RECEPTION
7. LEGACY
8. FINAL THOUGHTS
9. REFERENCES

BACKGROUND

They say two’s company, three’s a crowd. So, what does that make four? A hot mess?

To be fair, this is supposed to apply to people, not film franchises. Although this kind of works for Jaws 4. Jaws: The Revenge was a real hot mess…But does it work for ZOMBIES 4: Dawn of the Vampires?

I should insert a spoiler warning here before I say much more. If you’re a big ZOMBIES fan, then you’ve likely already seen ZOMBIES 4: Dawn of the Vampires, but if you haven’t, you might want to watch the movie first before reading any further.

I stated that I found ZOMBIES 3 to be a real disappointment in a previous review, mostly for its inclusion of aliens as its new “monster” species, and for its lack of catchy music, at least compared to the previous two films. I felt the same with Descendants 3 (2019). These “threequels” didn’t match the uniqueness of the original or the energy of the second. They didn’t work for me, but I could find moments in these third movies that I liked after watching them again, so they were not total abominations to the franchises’ legacies.

When a movie franchise gets to its fourth entry though, especially if it has no source material as a basis – so don’t worry Twilight and Harry Potter; you’re safe from this critique – it generally starts to feel unnecessary and like the studio in question has run out of ideas, wanting to milk a franchise’s popularity dry. I feared the same for ZOMBIES 4, because if I already didn’t like the third film for this reason, then how could I like the fourth?

Well, when I started watching ZOMBIES 4, I was not impressed. I liked seeing Zed, Addison, Willa, and Eliza again but I didn’t like the opening song, and I wasn’t overly convinced by the plot of the movie, which I was already aware of beforehand: two subsets of vampires have fought for decades, and the “Seabrook Four” try to find ways to help them get along. It was going to be very much the same story as each of the ZOMBIES films has followed. At least I knew not to expect too much.

However, much like when I watched Descendants: The Rise of Red (2024), after the story got going, and I got used to the new characters and new locations, I began to enjoy it more. I can’t say that I will ever be a huge fan of ZOMBIES 4, but it wasn’t bad by any means. It was good – there were a couple of moments in particular that had me emotional – and it really felt like a “passing of the torch” from the original cast to a new cast.

PLOT

As we had with the other three ZOMBIES movies, ZOMBIES 4: Dawn of the Vampires begins with an animated opening sequence, recapping the history of Seabrook, where zombies, humans, aliens, and werewolves live together. This recap also lets us know that zombie Zed and human Addison did end up at Mountain College, where they are finishing up their Freshman Year. They love being at college, mixing with different types of people and hearing new stories, like how another moonstone apparently crashed onto Mount Rayburn, creating two new monster species, Daywalkers and Vampires. Over the years, the two groups began to fight over sacred blood fruit, which they need to survive, to the point they decided to lock themselves away from their enemies – until now.

At Mountain College, unlike high school where they were at the top of their sports teams’ hierarchies, Zed and Addison are struggling. Zed is on the bench for football, being told by his coach to attend an intensive football camp over summer to boost his chances of getting on the team for next year. Addison is focusing on her summer Cheer Camp so she can be one of the best cheerleaders again. Meanwhile, Eliza and Willa are also at Mountain College and both are adjusting well. Because they aren’t going to get to see much of each other over summer, the four decide to have a mini road trip together, so they bundle into a yellow VW Beetle and head off for the summer.

Then, we zoom over to Sunnyside to meet the Daywalkers, who are practising their fighting skills on the beach. They are getting ready to harvest more blood fruit, where they’ll likely come face-to-face with the Vampires, their sworn enemy. Nova is the daughter of Daywalker Leader Commander Bright, who tells Nova they need to be prepared to destroy the Vampires if they get in the way of their harvest. Nova isn’t so sure about this, having had visions about a boy from another area, who seems to be the key to something…But Nova’s friend Ray is enthusiastic and eager to please Commander Bright, so he tells Bright he is committed to his plan.

Over at Shadyside, the home of the Vampires, we meet Vargas, Vera, and Victor. Victor is the nephew of the vampire Eldress; however, Victor wants to leave this place and travel the world. He doesn’t want to fight and fear Daywalkers for the rest of his life. But it’s time for the harvest for the Vampires too, so it’s best he gets on board with the plan.

On their road trip, Zed is driving Addison, Eliza, and Willa through the woods, but is distracted with calls from his coach, telling him to spend all summer thinking about football. Eliza and Willa are planning their camping trip together but get increasingly annoyed by Zed’s calls, so Willa throws his headset out the window – because Disney sensibly had Zed talking on a headset, because they don’t want to encourage anyone to be holding their phones whilst driving. Don’t do it, kids! Anyway, Zed randomly “zombies out”, meaning his Z-Band malfunctions momentarily, whilst driving, which isn’t very safe either… I’m not sure zombies should be allowed to drive if this is a possibility. Because of this, Zed crashes the car, and it stops upside-down in the middle of the woods. Everyone’s alive, thankfully. They all get out of the car, where the four split up, with Willa and Eliza going one way, Addison in another direction, and Zed another.

Addison starts walking over a hill, where she stumbles upon a border that splits the land between day and night. Addison heads for a city in the nightscape. Zed ends up finding the daylight town, showing up on the beach. As he runs to a group of people, he is attacked by Nova, as the Daywalkers believe he is a vampire. It’s been so long they actually don’t even know how to distinguish a vampire from anything else. Zed tries to convince everyone he isn’t a vampire. Nova believes him, and proves to her father that he isn’t; by showing he has no fangs. Zed is instead tasked with helping them complete the harvest. Over at Shadyside, Addison is also accused of being a daywalker, and is hit by their magic. She is saved from possible destruction by Victor, and quickly says she is part-alien. Addison is also told to join the group for the harvest.

Both Daywalkers and Vampires head to the blood fruit orchard, through opposite locked gates. As the two groups see each other, they try to race to be the first to get to the fruit. Willa and Eliza also find their way here. Everyone arrives at a bigger gate that won’t open. It apparently needs three keys to open it. As the Daywalkers and Vampires are about to do battle to see who gets to find these keys, Addison and Zed come up with a better idea: that they will help the young leaders of both groups find the keys together, if they agree to split the harvest. The Elders both agree to this deal, however, it soon becomes clear that Commander Bright plans to double-cross the vampires, telling Nova that she will help find the keys, but once the gate is open, the Daywalkers will take all the fruit for themselves.  

Zed, Addison, Eliza, and Willa take the young people to a camp in the middle of the woods, with sign posts directing them to it. That was handy! The camp is old and dusty, but it’ll have to do. The “Seabrook Four” tell the Daywalkers and Vampires to get some sleep. Zed and Addison then talk by the campfire, saying how it was a tough year at college, especially as they didn’t get to see much of each other. They’re also sad they won’t be in Seabrook this summer, to see Wynter, or Bree and Bonzo, or Bucky, who safely returned from space, having spread cheer to all the galaxy. So, he is part-alien after all, like Addison. Well, at least he didn’t burn up in the atmosphere!

The next morning, Nova and Victor say that they’ve been having visions about each other, but they aren’t sure why…But there’s no time to discuss that because the rest of the Daywalkers and Vampires are still at war with each other. Addison and Zed try to get the two groups to work together, but it’s a struggle! After the two groups use their powers against each other, they somehow manage to recreate a symbol that was on the gate, with the word “Gather” underneath it. In recreating this symbol, the first key is revealed. They put it in the gate, revealing another layer of gate underneath it that the next key will open. At the campfire that night, the Daywalkers and Vampires start to learn about each other, like the Vampires saying they don’t actually bite people and drink their blood, and how Daywalkers don’t eat soap to have “shiny insides”. How that rumour got going, we’ll never know… To begin this new era of co-operation, Nova and Victor both say goodnight to each other’s groups, much to the surprise of their friends.

With all the kids in bed, Willa, Addison, Zed, and Eliza talk about how Zed and Addison are too focused on their goals, and need to focus on spending time with people instead. As this conversation continues, a weird pulse goes through the camp, which messes with Zed and Eliza’s Z-Bands, as well as Willa’s moonstone necklace. Eliza decides they need to research this further, believing this pulse is so strong, it could reach Seabrook and endanger all the monsters there.

Nova and Victor secretly meet that night, where they find a cave that has symbols on the walls of both the Daywalkers and the Vampires, like much of the camp does. They believe this is evidence that both their groups used to get along, once upon a time. On looking at the cave walls further, they see that there are phases of the moon on the walls, and the colours of the rainbow on the ground, but both realise they are not in the correct order. Nova and Victor re-order the symbols and the second key is revealed. Victor puts the key in the gate. After he does this, and the final layer of gate is left, a hole in the ground begins to lower. It then rises up to reveal a huge stone ball, with the phrase “only one team can win” written beside it. The Daywalkers and Vampires fight over the boulder, as each tries to push it to their respective symbol: the sun or the moon. As the “Seabrook Four” try to get them to co-operate, a huge pulse comes through again, and Zed collapses, stopping the kids in their tracks. They take him back to camp.

There, Eliza, Willa, and Zed research the pulse further, and track it to a nearby hill. They believe the pulse must be originating underground, so Zed decides to go down into a hole in the ground. However, the rope carrying him snaps and the ground crumbles, taking Eliza and Willa into the cavern. Eliza finds that Zed is trapped under a rock, and both Eliza and Willa use their Z-Band and moonstone to shift the rock off him. They find blood fruit roots in this cave, which are being blocked by a ladder. The pulse seems to be coming from there, so the three try to move the ladders, but they won’t budge. Addison arrives with the Daywalkers and Vampires as they heard a noise, and they all work together to move it.

But the Daywalkers and Vampires are still fighting. Addison takes the opportunity to tell them all about Seabrook, and how they all learnt to get along. As they head back to camp, Ray takes Nova aside and reminds her that her father is expecting her to betray the Vampires once that gate is open. Nova doesn’t want to follow her father’s plan, but knows if she doesn’t, then he won’t let her lead. Vera overhears this conversation.

The next day, the two sides return to the stone ball, and work together to push it to one side. The third key is revealed, but this time, it is encased in amber. The Daywalkers attempt to use their fireballs to melt the amber, but it won’t work. The Vampires use their wind power to fan the flame, and the amber is eventually melted. They place the key in the gate – and it finally opens into the orchard. However, as the young leaders are about to head into the orchard, they find the Elders have also arrived there. It turns out Vera and Ray warned their leaders. The Elders fight, but their fighting results in much of the blood fruit being burnt. They declare camp over, as the warring sides ready themselves for war. As they leave, a new pulse comes over the area, and Zed, Willa, and Eliza become weak.

Back at camp, as the Daywalkers and Vampires get ready to leave, Eliza researches the pulse further, seeing that Zed is incredibly unwell. Eliza wants a clearer signal from the roots so returns to the cave. There, Zed fears that he will become a zombie forever if this pulse problem isn’t resolved. Addison says she’ll stay with him, no matter what. Eliza says the roots are struggling and the pulse is getting stronger. Nova and Victor then come to the cave, where Nova says she wasn’t going to betray him or the Vampires, knowing there is a reason why they were having visions of each other. They hold hands, at which point, they notice there are both white and black roots here, from each of their cities. They look up at the tower, and see that the top of it is meant to hold the moonstones from both Sunnyside and Shadyside. Nova and Victor know they have to steal their stones and bring them back here, to heal the roots. They fear this isn’t possible, but Zed and Addison tell them it is.

The other campers join Nova and Victor on their mission. Nova and Victor go to their respective cities and fight for their stones. The Elders return to the orchard to find there is no more fruit. Everyone arrives in the cave, but the Elders tell Nova and Victor to hand over their stones. They refuse, wanting to make peace. As the Elders go to attack them, their friends protect them. Nova and Victor ascend the tower, struggling against the powers. One of the ladders almost collapses in the battle, so Addison and Zed try to hold it up. Zed chooses to remove his Z-Band to find the strength to do this. It works and Nova and Victor get their moonstones in position, but Zed’s Z-Band is destroyed.

As the stones are safely in place, a storm comes over them, uniting the stones. Rain begins to fall, which heals the blood fruit roots, and stops Zed from becoming a zombie forever. The groups find that blood fruit is growing in the orchard again. It turns out all monsters are connected by moonstones, so by having the Daywalker and Vampire stones away from each other for too long, it caused the orchards to die and the pulse released affected the monsters. Nova and Victor declare that every year, at camp, they will bring their moonstones together. The Elders also decide that Nova and Victor are in fact ready to lead.

The movie ends happily with the Daywalkers and the Vampires coming together in celebration. We also see Zed and Addison reflecting on their strange and weird summer, saying they’ll be spending the rest of summer at Seabrook with friends and family. Them, Willa, and Eliza head their together. Then, Nova and Victor say goodbye to each other as they return to their cities. As they hug, a huge tornado of water shoots out of the ocean…

CHARACTERS & CAST

The ZOMBIES movies always liked to introduce new characters in their sequels, but ZOMBIES 4: Dawn of the Vampires is a little bit different, as only four of this movie’s characters come from the original ZOMBIES trilogy: Zed, Addison, Willa, and Eliza.

These four have been attending Mountain College together, so they remain close, however, Willa and Eliza have noticed that Zed and Addison are spending too much time focusing on football and cheerleading, stressing themselves out and stopping them from spending quality time with people. This is evident in their summer plans, as Zed and Addison plan to be at cheerleading and football camp over the break, whilst Willa and Eliza are going on a camping trip. But as fate would have it, none of them get the summer they expected. Instead, they are drawn into an ongoing war between two different monsters that they’ve never met before: Daywalkers and Vampires. Using their experience of their time in Seabrook, where Zed and Addison managed to integrate not just zombies and humans into town life, but werewolves and aliens as well in just a couple of years, they decide to guide the Daywalkers and Vampires into living harmoniously together, through the bonding experience of… Summer Camp.

Zed and Addison spend the most time with the Daywalkers and the Vampires, especially Nova and Victor, who remind them of themselves. Nova and Victor don’t want to bow to pressure from their leaders when they know that the two groups must have a reason to work together. Zed and Addison were very much the same, pushing against the status quo because they knew segregation of their two groups was not right. The two also deal with Zed’s ever-complicated Z-Band, which is being weakened by a strange pulse, that Eliza and Willa work to figure out. Luckily, because of Zed and Addison persuading Nova and Victor to work together, bringing the Daywalkers and Vampires together, the pulsing soon sorts itself out, and Zed doesn’t have to fear becoming a zombie forever! Zed and Addison celebrate their steady relationship with a little dance on the hill by the Daywalker and Vampire territories, just before meeting up with Eliza and Willa to return to Seabrook for the summer. This set up a goodbye of sorts from these original four characters. I must say though, I was so happy that this moment with Zed and Addison did NOT result in a proposal, because I was concerned. Descendants 3 began with an engagement between Ben and Mal, which I thought was ridiculous as they were only 18 or 19, and it just seemed they were way too young. We then got Descendants: The Royal Wedding (2021) to tie this story up. Many Disney fans seem to want this for Zed and Addison too, and are still hopeful for it, but I am not. Please stop encouraging this, Disney; there’s plenty of time in life for marriage. You don’t need to rush off and marry your childhood sweetheart. Live a little first.

Anyway, Milo Manheim returned to ZOMBIES 4 to play Zed. In recent years, Manheim has starred in numerous stage musicals, such as playing Johnny in the Green Day musical American Idiot for a late-2024 Deaf West Theatre production in Los Angeles, and starred as Seymour in the Off-Broadway revival of Little Shop of Horrors from February to June 2025. Manheim was recently announced as playing Peter in the star-studded Hollywood Bowl production of Jesus Christ Superstar, which will run from 1^st to 3^rd August 2025 and star Cynthia Erivo as Jesus and Adam Lambert as Judas.

Meg Donnelly also returned as Addison. Donnelly recently appeared as a contestant on Season 13 of The Masked Singer (2019-present), where she was Coral and came in third place. This season ran from February to May 2025. Chandler Kinney, as Willa, and Kylee Russell, as Eliza, were back for ZOMBIES 4 too. Coming up for them is a role as Kimberly in the 2026 series Elle, which is a prequel to the Legally Blonde franchise, for Kinney, and a role in the movie Savage Sistas for Russell.

Now, to the new characters. First, we have Nova. Nova is a Daywalker, meaning she lives in Sunnyside and has fire powers. Despite her father, Commander Bright, being determined to defeat the Vampires by any means necessary, keeping all the blood fruit for themselves, Nova doesn’t agree with her father, but doesn’t initially feel she can go against his wishes. She doesn’t tell her father she has visions of a boy, who is not a Daywalker, and wonders what this might mean. When she does meet this boy, Victor, who is a Vampire, she realises that they have no reason to fear the Vampires, and they should be working with them instead of against them. Thanks to her determination to do the right thing, and not bow to pressure, Nova manages to help revive the groups’ blood fruit orchards, as well as fix the pulsing that was troubling all the monsters.

Nova was played by Freya Skye, who was predominately known for singing prior to her role in ZOMBIES 4; this was her first movie role. Skye represented the UK at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest in 2022, where she performed the song “Lose My Head” and finished in fifth place, which is very impressive, given the UK’s usual struggles at Eurovision! Skye has since released numerous singles throughout 2024 and 2025, with her song “Who I Thought I Knew” quickly gaining over 1 million views on YouTube.

Like Nova, Victor is having visions about a girl who is not a Vampire like him. However, unlike Nova, who is determined to become a great leader for her people in Sunnyside, Victor doesn’t see a future for himself in Shadyside and can’t wait to leave, wanting to travel the world. His aunt is the Eldress, with Victor being the one to replace her, but he lacks the discipline of good leadership, not feeling very bothered about being a great leader, and just generally being calm, cool, and laid back. But after he meets Nova, Victor realises the two need to work together to get the rest of the groups to co-operate and live harmoniously. After some struggles against their Elders, Victor and Nova find the courage to go against them, by retrieving their moonstones and combining them to heal the blood fruit roots – and inadvertently all the monsters. Nova and Victor end ZOMBIES 4 as friends, with a potential romance looming.

Malachi Barton was cast as Victor, having already had numerous roles on Disney Channel prior to his role in ZOMBIES 4. He was cast as Beast Diaz in the Disney Channel series Stuck in the Middle (2016-18), and then voiced the character of Lionel in the animated Disney Junior series Fancy Nancy (2018-22). Barton went on to star as Marshall in the Disney Channel Original Movies Under Wraps (2021) and Under Wraps 2 (2022), as well as appear in the series The Villains of Valley View (2022-23) as Colby / Flashform. Barton has recently been announced as a new cast member for the upcoming Camp Rock 3.

On to Nova and Victor’s friends. Nova’s friend in the Daywalker community is Ray. Ray is very committed to the group, wanting to impress Nova’s father Commander Bright with his dedication to the cause of fighting Vampires. Because of this, Ray does not come around to the idea of “playing nice” with the Vampires until late on in the film. Ray wants Nova to stick to the plan and take all the blood fruit for themselves, instead of cosying up to Victor and the other Vampires. When Nova makes it clear she won’t be doing that, Ray tries to show his leadership skills to Bright by telling him, and causing an all-out war in the orchards, which leads to their blood fruit being burnt up. So really, all he did was make things worse! Ray eventually apologises to Nova, believing he was doing the right thing initially and now knowing he didn’t, and he gets along with their new way of life.

Julian Lerner was cast as Ray. Previously, Lerner voiced the role of Lucas Reed in Season 1 of the PBS Kids animated series Alma’s Way (2021-present), going on to play Brad Hitman in the ABC series The Wonder Years (2021-23). In film, Lerner was cast as Evan ‘Nando’ Torres in the Netflix movie Yes Day (2021) which starred Jennifer Garner and Édgar Ramírez, and later as Eugene Wexler in Monster Summer (2024).

On Victor’s side are Vera and Vargas, two Vampires. Vera is the more serious of the two, not trusting Daywalkers, especially not after she hears Ray and Nova talking about their plans to betray the Vampires. Vera is the one to call on their Eldress to come to the orchard to stop this, much like Ray does for the Daywalkers. Vargas, on the other hand, is more playful and jokey, who comes to accept the Daywalkers more quickly than Vera.

Vera was played by Swayam Bhatia. For Disney, Bhatia had previously starred as Sofi Hanson-Bhatt in the Disney+ series The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers. She had also appeared in the recurring role of Sophie Roy in the smash-hit series Succession (2018-23). Vargas was played by Mekonnen Knife, with ZOMBIES 4 being a breakout role for him.

For the strict leaders of the Daywalker and Vampire communities, we have Jonno Roberts as Commander Bright, who is also Nova’s father. Most recently, Roberts was cast as James Mallet in Season 2 of the NBC sci-fi drama La Brea (2021-24) and as Declan Stanwick in Season 3 of the sitcom Wrecked (2016-18). The Vampire Eldress, and Victor’s aunt, was played by Lisa Chappell. Prior to her role in ZOMBIES 4, Chappell was cast as Michelle Beaufort from Season 29 to 31 of the long-running New Zealand soap opera Shortland Street (1992-present).

MUSIC

The soundtrack for ZOMBIES 4: Dawn of the Vampires was released on 11^th July 2025 and consists of 13 pieces of music, with eleven songs appearing in the film. Many of the songwriters from the previous ZOMBIES films came back to write songs for ZOMBIES 4. It is unclear how well ZOMBIES 4’s soundtrack has done on the album charts, like iTunes and Billboard so far, as it has only been out for a week, but these will be released in time.

I initially didn’t think I was going to find any songs that I liked in this movie, as it didn’t get off to a good start for me. However, I did find a few by the end of the film that I liked, more so than I did with the ZOMBIES 3 soundtrack. The most unexpected thing though was that I find my favourite song of the whole franchise in this film.

In movie order, the opening song of ZOMBIES 4 is “Legends in the Making”. It gives a recap of Zed, Addison, Willa, and Eliza’s Mountain College experience. I’m not sure what it is about this song, but I really didn’t like it. Maybe it was just too positive and upbeat for college; where were all the half-asleep students who don’t want to get up for lectures? That was my experience of college and I didn’t once see a flash mob! “Legends in the Making” was written by Tova Litvin and Doug Rockwell, and was performed by Milo Manheim, Meg Donnelly, Chandler Kinney, and Kylee Russell as Zed, Addison, Willa, and Eliza.

Next up is “The Place to Be”, which is all about Nova and the Daywalkers showing Zed just why they are so awesome, with Victor and the Vampires showing Addison what makes them better as they both head to the blood fruit orchards for harvest time. It’s the perfect quick explanation as to exactly what the difference between these two groups is and shows what they are all about. No doubt this was the reason it was released as a single on 2^nd May 2025, to give fans a clear idea of what the new movie would be about. I quite liked it; it was like a typical Disney Channel group number with lots of energy and enthusiasm. The song was written by Mitch Allan, Chantry Johnson, and Michelle Zarlenga. It was performed predominantly by the new cast of Freya Skye as Nova, Malachi Barton as Victor, Swayam Bhatia as Vera, Julian Lerner as Ray, and Mekonnen Knife as Vargas.

Shortly after this, once the two groups have arrived at summer camp, the Daywalkers and the Vampires continue to fight against each other and show that they don’t want to co-operate with each other, no matter how much the original ZOMBIES characters tell them they ought to. It’s a proper face-to-face battle this time. This song is “Don’t Mess with Us”, which was performed by the entire cast, and written by Antonina Armato, Tim James Price, Thomas Armato Sturges, and Adam Schmalholz. It just shows how much effort Zed and Addison will have to put in to get these two groups to work together! This song was also released as a single prior to the movie’s release, on 13^th June 2025. It was another decent song, although pretty similar to “The Place to Be”.

Then, we get to my all-time favourite ZOMBIES song and that is “Dream Come True”. Initially, we hear a brief section of the song, with this being listed as “Dream Come True (Intro)” on the soundtrack. This “intro” took place before “Don’t Mess with Us”, and showed Nova and Victor confused about why they’ve had visions of each other. It is so short that it gave no indication to me of just how good the whole song was – but “Dream Come True” is amazing. It shows Nova and Victor understanding that there is a reason why they had visions of each other, and showing that they are willing to get past their group’s differences, culminating in a sort of ballet in the sky as they both fly through the breeze together. Freya Skye and Malachi Barton, performing as Nova and Victor, shot “Dream Come True” on wires and harnesses, running up and jumping off ramps to get that height to make it seem like they are flying[1]. It was a beautiful scene and it was the moment that made me really focus on this movie. “Dream Come True” was written by Jaheem King Toombs and Matthew Martinez.

This amazing song was followed by a song that I really didn’t like, and was the worst of the entire soundtrack for me. This is the hip-hop-style song “Kerosene”. I’m not a big fan of hip-hop, or whatever musical style this, but my real issue with “Kerosene” is the lyrics, which I found to be a bit cringey and random. “If it’s fire that we need, then I’m the kerosene” just didn’t impress me as a lyric. “Kerosene” was performed by the entire cast, during the moment that Zed, Willa, and Eliza are trying to stop the pulsing they keep feeling by moving a ladder off the blood fruit roots, with everyone coming to help them. “Kerosene” was written by Antonina Armato, Tim James Price, Thomas Armato Sturges, Adam Schmalholz.

A bit later, after Nova is told by Ray to stick to Commander Bright’s plan, she feels conflicted about what is the best thing to do, culminating in the solo ballad “My Own Way”. “My Own Way” was performed by Skye as Nova and was written by Josh Cumbee and Jordan Powers.

Following that, we have “Possible”, performed by the entire cast as Nova and Victor figure out they need to combine their moonstones, and will need to steal them from their cities, to truly find peace, but they don’t think that is possible. It is up to Zed and Addison to convince that they can actually achieve this, even if it’s hard. This shows Zed and Addison’s mentoring of Nova and Victor to be successful, as Nova and Victor rally the campers to help them in their plan. I did like this song; it was quite moving to see everyone finally putting their differences aside and coming together. “Possible” was performed mostly by Skye, Barton, Manheim, and Donnelly, as Nova, Victor, Zed, and Addison, and was written by Antonina Armato, Tim James Price, Thomas Armato Sturges, Adam Schmalholz.

Then, we get the ZOMBIES 4 version of “Someday”, something that every ZOMBIES movie has had! This is “Someday (Reprise)”, even though we’ve already had three other “Someday” reprises! This is a very short one performed by Manheim and Donnelly as Zed and Addison, potentially for the last time. This is another heartfelt moment as Addison watches Zed get weaker and almost go “full zombie”. She vows to stay by his side regardless of what happens, but she is scared she’ll lose him after his Z-Band stops working. “Someday (Reprise)” was written by Dustin Burnett and Paula Winger.

After that, we get the typical cheery group finale number. In this case, the song is “Show the World”, written by Matthew Tishler and Shridhar Solanki, and performed by the entire cast. It shows the Daywalkers and Vampires collecting food and drinks to have a celebration at Camp Rayburn, their summer camp. I tend to like these finale numbers in Disney Channel musicals, and musicals in general. “Show the World” is no different.

Finally, we have the last musical moment within ZOMBIES 4: Dawn of the Vampires and that is “Ain’t No Doubt About It (Reprise)”, a private moment between Zed and Addison as they reflect on their time with the Daywalkers and the Vampires and prepare to head back to Seabrook with Eliza and Willa. It’s a lovely farewell from Zed and Addison and I think it wrapped up not just their journey but also Milo Manheim and Meg Donnelly’s journey with the ZOMBIES movies. It was very touching, and I liked their tap dance moment, which seemed to be a callback to their tap dancing in “Someday” in the first ZOMBIES movie. “Ain’t No Doubt About It (Reprise)” was written by Josh Cumbee and Jordan Power, and performed by Manheim and Donnelly, again, potentially for the last time.

There is then an End Credits song called “Together As One”, performed by the entire cast and written by Tim Boomsma, Gustavo Branger, Milo Branger, Louis Knight, and Mohamed Alitou. I didn’t like this song much, even if it is about unity between the Daywalkers and the Vampires. It’s just there, like End Credits song tend to be, not leaving very much impression because they don’t have a scene to give them proper context.

The score for ZOMBIES 4: Dawn of the Vampires was composed by British composer Tom Howe. Howe is the composer on the popular AppleTV+ series Ted Lasso (2021-present) and has also collaborated with Aardman Animations on the music for a couple of their movies, including A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon (2019), and Early Man (2018) with Harry Gregson-Williams. Howe is also the one behind the theme music for The Great British Bake-Off (2010-present). For Disney, Howe composed the score for the DCOM Upside-Down Magic (2020). An excerpt of Howe’s score is included as a track on the official ZOMBIES 4 soundtrack.

PRODUCTION

After three movies, with ZOMBIES 3 seeming to signal the end of the series, many may’ve been surprised to find that ZOMBIES 4: Dawn of the Vampires was in the works when it was officially confirmed that production had begun in March 2024.

This announcement contained information around the confirmed cast and crew. Writers David Light and Joseph Raso, who wrote the original unaired TV pilot Zombies & Cheerleaders which was the basis for the original ZOMBIES film, returned to for this fourth movie, after writing all three of the previous ZOMBIES movies. This time, though, they were joined by Josh Cagan for the screenplay. Cagan had previously written the screenplay for the teen comedy movie The DUFF (2015) and was no stranger to the world of Disney Channel movies, as he had also co-written the live-action DCOM Kim Possible (2019), and went on to work on the DCOMs Spin (2021) and Under Wraps 2 (2022) prior to ZOMBIES 4.

ZOMBIES 4: Dawn of the Vampires’ story took a slightly different direction to that of the previous three films. This time, the ZOMBIES franchise was moving outside of Seabrook and its “monsters” who came to live there. Instead, they chose to take zombies Zed and Eliza, human and part-alien Addison, and werewolf Willa away from Seabrook, which they know so well, to a completely different location. Here, they discover the existence of two completely different species of “monster”: Vampires and Daywalkers.

To be perfectly honest, whenever I hear the term “daywalker”, all I think about is Cartman’s school report in the episode “Ginger Kids” in South Park (1997-present), where he said “daywalkers” are people with red hair who do not have pale skin and freckles. I can hear his speech even as I’m typing this, which isn’t relevant to this term at all and can be considered offensive so I’ll quickly move on!

Daywalkers are actually like a subset of vampires. In folklore, daywalkers are basically just vampires that can exist in the sun. Back in the 19^th Century with novels like Bram Stoker’s Dracula, vampires were simply weaker in daylight, but were never destined to burn up and die in the sunshine. Even Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight Saga vampires can exist in the sun; it just makes their skin sparkle like glitter, which would reveal that they are not humans like they pretend to be. Apparently, it was the 1922 silent film Nosferatu that first showed a vampire that was unable to exist in daylight, as Count Orlok vanished in a puff of fire when the sun came up in that film. As the years went on, it became a common truth that vampires and sunlight were enemies, however, over time, the lore around vampires has begun to shift again to say that vampires do not always fear sunlight[2].

In this case, the ZOMBIES 4 Vampires and Daywalkers aren’t much like we’d expect them to be at all anyway. These vampires do not suck blood, and although they live in darkness, they can exist in sunlight without crumbling to ash. They also have powers, which allow them to manipulate air and wind. Daywalkers, on the other hand, live in a city called Sunnyside, where they make the most of the sun’s rays. They also have magic, but they manipulate fire. The two groups have feared and vowed revenge against the other for centuries, as they fight over their shared food source, blood fruit. It is only thanks to the forced shared experience during a version of summer camp that these two groups are able to realise they can do more good by joining forces instead of warring against each other, a message that reaches the young people before it hits the Elders.

The story of ZOMBIES 4 feels very much like the three movies that came before it, by having two enemy sides come together to live in harmony with each other. But hey, I guess if a theme works, work it hard!

Paul Hoen returned to direct ZOMBIES 4: Dawn of the Vampires, having been the director on all three of the previous ZOMBIES movies. Hoen is a legendary director in the Disney Channel Original Movie world, having already directed The Cheetah Girls: One World (2008); Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam (2010); Let It Shine (2012); Cloud 9 (2014); and Invisible Sister (2015), just to name a few, prior to his work with the ZOMBIES franchise.

Milo Manheim and Meg Donnelly were executive producers on ZOMBIES 4: Dawn of the Vampires too. The two got to be involved in the audition process, for example, basically helping to choose their replacements for a new Zed and Addison-style pairing! They enjoyed working on post-production too, being able to have input in this, and felt they were a good bridge between the production process and the acting process, as well as being able to guide the new cast through the experience of shooting a Disney Channel musical. It was overall a great experience for both of them as professionals in the movie industry[3].

As ZOMBIES 4 is not set in Seabrook, it made sense for the filming locations to be different. In this case, the cast and crew ended up in New Zealand, not Canada, for the majority of their shoot, which ran from around March to May 2024. It is thought that a few scenes were still filmed in Toronto though.

In New Zealand, King’s College, a school in the suburb of Ōtāhuhu in Auckland was the location for Mountain College. In the dance section of “Legends in the Making” specifically, this takes place outside the King’s College Centennial Centre. Bethells Beach and the Te Henga Cave, outside of Auckland, were used as we see Nova and Victor walk through the cave in the ending scene. I think you can also see the respective groups walk through this cave on the way to the original harvest that doesn’t happen. Speaking of Daywalkers, their city of Sunnyside was filmed at the Auckland University of Technology. With all the glass-fronted, high-rise buildings, it reminded me a bit of Erudite in the Divergent film series. At the blood fruit orchard, you can also see the Okiritoto Falls, located at Oneonenui Farm[4]. Other filming locations named are Piha Beach, on North Island’s West Coast within the Waitakere Rangers, with Lion Rock in the background, which seems to be the site of the Daywalkers practising fighting on the beach, when Zed first meets them. It would also seem that the Mākara Walkway, near Mākara Beach in Wellington, was the site for Zed and Addison’s moment on the hills, as well as potentially the location for “Dream Come True”, although this is hard to identify, being landscape and not a building[5]. The cast also had fun exploring what New Zealand has to offer. According to cast members’ Instagram accounts, they seem to have visited Hobbiton, the official movie set location for the The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies, based in Matamata, as well as the mud baths in Rotorua on the Hell’s Gate Reserve.

The team working on ZOMBIES 4 were committed to using as many real-life locations as possible in their shoot, although in some cases, green screen or CGI was needed to create some settings. For example, the city of Sunnyside has been added to the hilly backdrop on the beach, and obviously, the overhead shots of both Sunnyside and Shadyside are not real. There is also some special effect usage, for the Daywalkers and Vampires powers, the pulses, and the blood fruit orchard being burnt up, for instance.

With the introduction of new settings and new characters came new costumes. For the Daywalkers, they are dressed in whites and reds, to match their reliance on the sunlight and fire. They also wear relatively loose-fitting clothing, probably because they are known for being fighters. On the other hand, the Vampires, who are used to living in darkness, wear reds and blacks to signify that. The Vampires wear more punk-looking clothing, with leather-style jackets and emblazoned tees. Since both groups wear red, this is a uniting colour between the two, showing that they are linked in some way, because they are both a form of vampire and both rely on blood fruit to survive.

The original characters got a costume update too. This time, Addison is not in a cheerleading outfit for the majority of the movie! She wears a lot of blue here, no doubt to pay tribute to her alien heritage. Zed continues to wear dark colours, with jeans and jackets, but at the end of the film, he dresses up a little bit, with a smart jacket and tie. Eliza’s outfit isn’t overly different to previous ZOMBIES films either, but she stills looks cool. Willa is continuing to rep her werewolf look with her a top and at one point, she has a long blue/purple robe or cardigan too. All of their outfits show them growing up, and looking more like college students instead of peppy high schoolers.

For choreography, Draico Johnson, choreographer on ZOMBIES 3, returned to work on ZOMBIES 4: Dawn of the Vampires. He liked working with new dancers and enjoyed choreographing for the new characters. There were opportunities to show the two go head-to-head in dance battles, particularly in the sequence for “Don’t Mess with Us”, when the Daywalkers and the Vampires are trying to show who is the best. “The Place to Be” also does this, although they aren’t face-to-face at this point, but they are still trying to prove their group is better than the other. Johnson particularly liked the energy of the song “The Place to Be” and used that for his choreography inspiration[6].

Some of these dances took place on the beach, which made dancing even more difficult as they had to work against the movement of the sand under their feet – although I think all of the dancing looks hard to remember and even more difficult to execute perfectly with each take, but I’m not a dancer! Other experiences that the actors went through on set were numerous lessons in fighting, specifically for Freya Skye as Nova, since her character seemingly has been trained to fight hand-to-hand combat for many years, and the original ZOMBIES cast members were strapped to a rotating machine for the scene where their car crashes in the woods, which was a struggle for some of them to get through as they tumbled upside down multiple times! This was the last shot of the whole movie too[7].

RECEPTION

Since ZOMBIES 4: Dawn of the Vampires actually finished filming in mid-2024, there was a lot of buzz and anticipation for this film for an entire year.

Many debated when ZOMBIES 4 would be released, with many favouring the idea of a February release, as ZOMBIES and ZOMBIES 2 had done, coinciding with Valentine’s Day. But the actual release date would end up being in July 2025, for a summer release, much like ZOMBIES 3 had. Summer releases in general are known to do well, so this made good business sense, I think.

Multiple behind-the-scenes clips and interviews were released in the months and weeks leading up to ZOMBIES 4 release, which was confirmed around April/May 2025 as being on 10^th July 2025 for Disney Channel, and 11^th July 2025 for a worldwide Disney+ release. These interviews featured a mixture of the cast, with some being solely Milo Manheim and Meg Donnelly; others with these two and Freya Skye and Malachi Barton; and more with a combination of the old and new cast.  

On 8^th July 2025, the official ZOMBIES 4: Dawn of the Vampires premiere was held at El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles. As well as the cast of this movie appearing alongside loved ones, many fans were pleased to see the return of some of the original ZOMBIES cast here, such as Trevor Tordjman, who played Bucky; Pearce Joza, who played Wyatt; and Carla Jeffrey, who played Bree. Other Disney stars also walked the carpet, including Descendants: The Rise of Red stars Kylie Cantrall and Dara Reneé, as well as other Disney Channel stars, like some of the cast of Wizards Beyond Waverly Place (2024-present), and even former Disney Channel actors like Jake Thomas from Lizzie McGuire (2001-04).

On 10^th July 2025, Disney Channel exclusively premiered ZOMBIES 4: Dawn of the Vampires, with the first three movies airing on the channel earlier in the day, ahead of the official premiere. Apparently, ZOMBIES 4 was watched by around 600,000 viewers on that night, with this being the most-watched Disney Channel Original Movie premiere since Upside-Down Magic (2020)[8]. It also beat out the premiere for ZOMBIES 3, which reached around 300,000 viewers on its premiere allegedly, although it was released on Disney+ first.

This figure of 0.6 million may not sound like much when compared to the premieres of other DCOMs like High School Musical 2 (2007) and Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie (2009), but viewing habits are changing, with many preferring to watch new programming via streaming services instead of cable TV.

ZOMBIES 4: Dawn of the Vampires was added to Disney+ on 11^th July 2025, allowing it to be viewed by a global audience. Apparently, all four of the ZOMBIES movies occupied the top four spots in Disney+’s Top Five most-watched list in the first week of its release. ZOMBIES 4 topped this list, followed by ZOMBIES, then ZOMBIES 2, and finally ZOMBIES 3[9]. It is unclear if this is a worldwide Disney+ Top 5, or if it is solely in the US, but either way, this is quite impressive. I had seen on social media that ZOMBIES 4 was the No. 1 film on the platform both worldwide and in the US though, but as the movie has only been around for a week, I’ll wait for something more concrete on this.

Much like with the other ZOMBIES movies, and most DCOMs in general, ZOMBIES 4 received various comments, both positive and negative. On the positive side, the performances of Milo Manheim and Meg Donnelly as Zed and Addison were praised once again. Many also said the music and dance numbers were fun. Others said it was a sweet farewell from the original cast, and a great outing for the new, fresh-faced cast. Fans of the ZOMBIES franchise were most likely to enjoy ZOMBIES 4.

However, some said ZOMBIES 4: Dawn of the Vampires lacked a strong narrative and compelling characters, feeling that the film hopped from scene-to-scene at a break-neck speed which made the movie feel rushed. I quite liked the fact that ZOMBIES 4 didn’t settle on anything for too long, because it meant I was never bored, and if I didn’t like a particular moment or character, I knew we’d be moving on to something else quickly. There were also comments that ZOMBIES 4 was just repeating the same plot as the previous ZOMBIES movies, and that the franchise just continuously repeats the same story over and over again. Even Nova and Victor were created to be just like Zed and Addison, so ZOMBIES 4 wasn’t seen to be anything new, and if fans already felt ZOMBIES 3 was unnecessary, then a fourth movie was just ridiculous.

That was my opinion on ZOMBIES 4 for at least during the first half an hour that I was watching, but by the end of it, I actually found I enjoyed ZOMBIES 4 more than ZOMBIES 3, but that might just be because of “Dream Come True” grabbing my attention and me then being receptive to finding another moment in the film that did that again. There wasn’t really, until the very end with Zed and Addison’s moment on the hill, but still, ZOMBIES 4 felt like a movie that both fit within the ZOMBIES space, and could work without it, which I think is what it needed to be.

LEGACY

The earliest ZOMBIES 4 experience to come from the movie was actually first announced months before the film itself had even premiered.

At the D23 Expo in August 2024 in Anaheim, it was announced that there was going to be a new concert tour called Descendants / Zombies: Worlds Collide Tour, coming to arenas in North America over Summer 2025, where stars from both Descendants: The Rise of Red and ZOMBIES 4: Dawn of the Vampires would be performing hits from their movie franchises. There was also a performance from the Descendants: The Rise of Red cast at this on-stage announcement too. Freya Skye, Malachi Barton, and Meg Donnelly met fans the following day at the D23 Expo.

During the following months, more details about this tour were revealed, and tickets went on sale in November 2024. It has since been revealed that cast members going on this tour are Freya Skye, Mekonnen Knife, and Malachi Barton from ZOMBIES 4, and Malia Baker, Dara Reneé, Joshua Colley, and Kylie Cantrall from Descendants: The Rise of Red. The tour began in San Diego on 17^th July 2025, just a week after ZOMBIES 4’s premiere. The tour will run until 16^th September 2025, where it will play its final show in Texas[10].

At Walt Disney World, in preparation for the ZOMBIES 4 premiere, a new costume exhibit went up on display in the Walt Disney Presents attraction at Disney’s Hollywood Studios around April 2025. There were four costumes worn in the film that were put on display: one for Nova, one for Addison, one for Zed, and one for Victor. There was also an informational plaque detailing a brief overview of the plot of the entire ZOMBIES franchise and ZOMBIES 4 specifically[11]. These displays are swapped out frequently based on whichever Disney movie is about to be released.

Closer to ZOMBIES 4’s release date, a rolling stage promoting ZOMBIES 4 was spotted at Disney Springs at the Walt Disney World Resort. On this stage is a DJ, talking about the film whilst music from the franchise plays. It began in early July 2025 and will run until the start of August 2025, running daily from the late afternoon into the evening. There are also banners and photo-op boards around the area, promoting the film[12]. For some reason, this same experience doesn’t appear to have been at Disneyland.

For the Halloween season, which begins in August at Walt Disney World, at the Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party, there will be a ZOMBIES 4 dance party for 2025, on the Rockettower Plaza Stage in Tomorrowland at Magic Kingdom, replacing the DescenDANCE Party from last year.

Finally, as ZOMBIES 4 ended on a cliffhanger, with Nova and Victor seeing that spiral of water coming out of the ocean, it is believed that a ZOMBIES 5 will be coming. There has been no confirmation of this so far, and no clue as to what this water thing could be, but if viewing figures and audience reaction remain positive, then a new movie can be expected.

FINAL THOUGHTS

From the moment that promotional activities began for ZOMBIES 4: Dawn of the Vampires, the two original stars of the ZOMBIES franchise, Milo Manheim and Meg Donnelly, mentioned that this movie was a “passing of the torch”, that they were seeing this as an opportunity to introduce a new cast to take the ZOMBIES movies forward.

In a similar way to Descendants: The Rise of Red, ZOMBIES 4: Dawn of the Vampires allowed audiences to get to know a new set of characters, and a new crop of actors, whilst also letting them settle in to this new idea by still having some of their favourite characters around. It’s a clever idea, and one that I believe worked for the majority.

Yet, it was still a sad moment saying goodbye, potentially forever, to Zed, Addison, Willa, and Eliza, with the loss of “Zeddison” hitting fans the most. However, they were given a beautiful send-off, which gave them their own special moment within this film where they waved a metaphorical goodbye to us viewers and went off on their merry way.

With them gone, ZOMBIES has an opportunity to continue on with different characters and a different setting. Personally, I don’t think ZOMBIES 4 needed to be a part of the ZOMBIES franchise and could’ve sustained itself without any mention of Seabrook, but I can see the effort in trying to “reboot” the ZOMBIES franchise.

If I was younger, I probably would’ve been incredibly positive about this film – but this new cast are well over a decade younger than me, so they’re making me feel old! But still, ZOMBIES 4: Dawn of the Vampires surprised me, in a good way, and I appreciate this movie for giving the original cast the chance to help guide this new cast to greatness. I’m sure everyone involved is going to go on to do great things, both with and away from Disney.

REFERENCES

[1] Credit: Disney Channel, ‘ZOMBIES 4 Cast Watch Party! Snacks & BTS w/ Meg, Milo, Malachi & Freya’, Disney Channel Music YouTube Channel, 12^th July 2025.

[2] Credit: Kelly Faircloth, ‘How vampires became allergic to the sun’, NationalGeographic.com, 10^th July 2025.

[3] Credit: Good Morning America, ‘Milo Manheim, Meg Donnelly on their roles as executive producers in ‘Zombies 4’’, Good Morning America YouTube Channel, 16^th July 2025.

[4] Credit: Ra Moon, ‘Where was Zombies 4 filmed? Guide to (almost) all the filming locations’, AtlasOfWonders.com, date unknown.

[5] Credit: Naman Shrestha, ‘Where Was Zombies 4 Filmed? Dawn of the Vampires Shooting Locations’, MovieDelic.com, 10^th July 2025.

[6] Credit: TMilly Staff, ‘From Disney to Netflix: How Draico Johnson Shapes Stories Through Dance’, Blog.TMilly.tv, 28^th June 2025.

[7] Credit: Good Morning America, ‘Cast of ‘Zombies 4’ on hardest part of filming’, Good Morning America YouTube Channel, 15^th July 2025.

[8] Credit: Disney, ‘#ZOMBIES4: Dawn of the Vampires scored 600,000 viewers on Thursday Night’, ZOMBIES 4 Official X Account, 14^th July 2025.

[9] Credit: Nicole Sobon, ‘A Surprising Zombie Movie Franchise Is Dominating Disney+’s Streaming Charts’, ComicBook.com, 14^th July 2025.

[10] Credit: Disney, ‘Descendants Zombies Worlds Collide Tour’, DisneyConcerts.com, date unknown.

[11] Credit: Jamie Rowland, ‘‘Zombies 4: Dawn of the Vampires’ Props on Display at Disney’s Hollywood Studios’, WDWNT.com, 27^th April 2025.

[12] Credit: Luke Manning, Jeremiah Good, ‘Unleash Your Inner Monster: “ZOMBIES 4” Activation Comes to Disney Springs’, LaughingPlace.com, 7^th July 2025.

1. BACKGROUND
2. PLOT
3. CHARACTERS & CAST
4. MUSIC
5. PRODUCTION
6. RECEPTION
7. LEGACY
8. FINAL THOUGHTS
9. REFERENCES

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 33^rd 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 15^th 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 12^th 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 11^th 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 15^th 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 12^th August 2022.

According to the Nielsen Streaming Chart, ZOMBIES 3 was No. 7 in their list of Top 10 Movies for the week of 11^th to 17^th 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 2^nd 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 50^th 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 50^th Anniversary, being set off, alongside the lighting of the Beacons of Light at all four parks, which was also a 50^th 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 29^th to 31^st July 2022, and then at Walt Disney World from 5^th to 14^th 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 10^th 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, 15^th 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, 25^th 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, 20^th May 2022.

[4] Credit: Fred Topel, ‘Milo Manheim says Disney+’s ‘Zombies 3’ promotes healthy conflict’, UPI.com, 13^th July 2022.

[5] Credit: Paige France, ‘Familiar Filming Sights As UTM Locations Rise To Stardom’, TheMedium.ca, 23^rd August 2021.

[6] Credit: Glenn Hendry, ‘Zombies spotted on movie set at Pickering-Markham border’, Insauga.com, 6^th August 2021.

[7] Credit: Varun Patel, ‘Where Was Disney’s ‘Zombies’ Shot?’, TheCinemaholic.com, 14^th 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, 13^th 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, 6^th January 2023.

[11] Credit: Disney Channel, ‘ZOMBIES 3 Day in the Life I Part 2 I Time to Dance’, Disney Channel Music, 9^th December 2022.

[12] Credit: Zach Johnson, ‘Three Cheers for the ZOMBIES 3 Premiere’, D23.com, 11^th July 2022.

[13] Credit: Roger Palmer, ‘“Zombies 3” Debuts On The Nielsen Streaming Chart’, WhatsOnDisneyPlus.com, 12^th 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, 12^th September 2022.

1. BACKGROUND
2. PLOT
3. CHARACTERS & CAST
4. MUSIC
5. PRODUCTION
6. RECEPTION
7. LEGACY
8. FINAL THOUGHTS
9. REFERENCES

BACKGROUND

Some Disney Channel musicals are left to rock alone. No sequel, no problem – we still love them. Then again, sometimes Disney like to push their musicals beyond just the one movie.

ZOMBIES is one of those musical franchises that was felt to be popular enough, entertaining enough, and worthy enough of getting a sequel, which came to the channel two years after the first movie was released; a typical gap between sequels.

However, just because it makes business sense to develop and release a sequel, it doesn’t always mean that the story warranted a further film. I’m not blaming solely Disney Channel or Disney in general for that; it’s just how it goes sometimes, whether I like it or not.

Anyway, it could be argued that perhaps ZOMBIES didn’t need a sequel. It seemed like at the end of the first film, the humans and the zombies were able to co-exist, and everything ended happily between them. The plot was wrapped up nicely and it wouldn’t have been entirely obvious where Disney Channel would go with a ZOMBIES sequel.

But a sequel there was going to be, so where would it go now? At first glance, it would seem that ZOMBIES 2 was just going to be like the first movie, but instead of the zombies causing problems, a new creature species was going to arrive in their town of Seabrook. And that species turned out to be… werewolves. Hmm, random.

To be fair, these werewolves are actually pretty cool and I don’t have a problem with them being there, other than, like I said, it was kind of a random choice, especially as it turns out they’ve apparently been living in the Forbidden Forest around the town for years – and yet, they were never referenced in the first film.

On the other hand, the werewolves add a whole new dimension to the ZOMBIES franchise, and they aren’t there just because they want to go to high school. In actual fact, their addition to the movie is a bit more poignant, as it can be seen as a reference to the dangers of colonialism. The werewolves were native to Seabrook, before human settlers came to their land and started taking their resources. Now, where have I heard that before?

It’s an interesting spin on the franchise’s inclusion and integration concept and much deeper than I was expecting. I like ZOMBIES 2 more than the original for this very reason, and there are a few moments that bring a tear to my eye. The music and overall production value were also bigger and better. It’s clear ZOMBIES 2 was trying to outdo its predecessor.

PLOT

Similarly to the original ZOMBIES movie, ZOMBIES 2 begins with another animated sequence, giving us a bit more backstory into the characters’ hometown of Seabrook.

Many years ago, the settlers who founded Seabrook found monsters in the forest. The settlers fought off these mounters and found a power source, which they hid in order to harness its energy. The residents of Seabrook lived happily for years, forgetting all about monsters – until the day of the lime soda incident at the Seabrook Power Plant when some of Seabrook’s humans became zombies.

But the days of zombie apocalypses, and even restricting zombie rights, are behind Seabrook now as the humans and zombies learnt to live in harmony together. Now, the anti-monster laws that were in place back then have been abolished and humans and zombies can go anywhere in the town, with whoever they want, as explained by teenage zombie Zed. His football coach at school has even opened a froyo cart in the off-season, complete with flavours loved by humans and zombies alike. Zed goes on to say that there are plans to demolish the old power station, and his father is on the demolition crew. The aim is for a new cheer building to be built in its place, although Zed’s zombie friend Eliza is campaigning against the demolition, not wanting a piece of zombie history to be erased.

Meanwhile, Addison, Zed’s human girlfriend, is at Cheer Camp with her friend Bree, and Zed’s zombie friend, Bonzo, because zombies are now allowed on the cheer squad. However, their Cheer Captain, Bucky, despite seeming more open to the inclusion of zombies at the end of the first film, has apparently still not warmed to them, and decides to split the cheerleaders into two teams: the A-Team, and the Z-Team. The A-Team consists of veteran cheerleaders and Bucky loyalists, like the Aceys, Lacey and Stacey, with new member Jacey – real name Kevin – replacing Tracey from the first film. The Z-Team is full of newbies and zombies, with Bucky giving Addison the “privilege” of leading them in a race to win the Cheer Cup. Against all odds, Addison leads her team to victory and she leaves Cheer Camp on a high, and desperate to get back to Zed, who she has been attempting to write to all summer, however the Aceys shredded both of their letters and returned them to Addison in the form of pom-poms…Mean.

On the bus back home, being driven by a guy in a shrimp costume, also known as mascot Shrimpy, which I wouldn’t mention except for the fact that this is incredibly unsafe, Addison and others excitedly discuss Prawn, Seabrook’s version of Prom, because their team is known as the Mighty Shrimp. Not because Seabrook recently flooded and now everyone acts like crustaceans. You’re going to have to just go with this Prawn thing because it gets mentioned a lot! Addison wants to go to Prawn with Zed, and Bree wants to go with Bonzo, but both are waiting to be asked.

Luckily for Addison, Zed is setting up an elaborate “Prawn-posal”, with help from little sister Zoe, but for some reason, he decides to set this up across the road so Addison will be able to see it on the bus. It turns out Zed didn’t get his timings right though and as he stands on a ladder, hanging up some banners, he is hit by the bus. Zed stays on top of the bus for a little while before being thrown off, and the bus crashes into the Forbidden Forest, which, I’m just guessing here, is forbidden to enter. Addison, wanting to prove her leadership skills to Bucky, who is looking to replace himself as Cheer Captain because he’s running for Class President at school this year, orders everyone to keep calm and stay on the bus. Addison, however, chooses to leave the bus to check if Zed is ok. On walking into the forest though, she hears strange noises and finds herself surrounded by werewolves! Zed and others arrive and Addison tells them what she saw. They report back to Seabrook with the news. Seabrook declare an emergency meeting at City Hall, where the mayor, also Addison’s mother, announces that all anti-monster laws are effective once again, meaning, amongst other things, that the zombies will now not be allowed to attend Prawn. Bummer…

Later, we discover that a werewolf in disguise has been scouting out Seabrook and he, Wyatt, returns to his pack in the forest with news. We see that the wolves are all wearing glowing necklaces which are powered by something called the moonstone. Wyatt believes that Addison must be the Great Alpha with the white hair who will lead the wolves to the moonstone, allowing them to recharge their necklaces, since without that, the wolves will become ill and die. Wyatt’s sister, Willa, and leader of the pack, isn’t convinced that Addison is in fact the Great Alpha, but is willing to explore this more. They find a patch off Addison’s cheerleading uniform on a nearby tree and discover she is from Seabrook High. They go there in the dark of night and hide in the school, ready to talk to Addison the next day.

At school the next day, Zed has a plan to get the zombies back in to Prawn: by running against Bucky for Class President, so he can change the rule. Eliza thinks they should just crash the Prawn, but Zed, ever the peacekeeper, wants to play by the rules. At a school assembly, the two candidates for Class President announce themselves, but the festivities are rudely interrupted by the arrival of the werewolves, scaring everyone. They seem to want Addison so Zed orders the football team to form a wall to protect her. The wolves get ready to attack, until Wyatt tells everyone to calm down, as they just want to talk. The wolves lie and say they just want to be part of the school, like the zombies are. Everyone calms down and the wolves are allowed to attend high school, just like that.

Zed begins campaigning for Class President, and it turns out Zed thinks he needs the “wolf vote” to win, as the school is split down the middle. Zed tries to help the wolves fit in at Seabrook by telling them to follow how the zombies behave. The wolves pretend to try and fit in, but really, they just want to talk to Addison. Their opportunity comes when Addison is leading a cheer practice in a bid to become Cheer Captain. The wolves plan to just watch practice but Addison convinces them to join in. Zed sees Addison hugging Wyatt through the door and instantly becomes jealous. The two argue. Addison tells Zed she likes the unity of the pride and wishes she could feel like she belongs somewhere too, as the humans of Seabrook still haven’t fully accepted her for her white hair. We also see another of the wolves, Wynter, begin to cough uncontrollably and almost collapse. The moment passes, but the wolves know they need to work out if Addison is the Great Alpha sooner rather than later.

That night, the wolves wait for Addison outside her house. They say they need to talk to her at their den in the forest. Addison goes with them and learns of the wolves’ illness and their loss of power. They show Addison a vision of the Great Alpha, who, she has to admit, does kind of look like her. The wolves make over Addison to look like the Great Alpha, but as they do, Zed, Eliza, Bonzo, and Bree burst in to the den. They’ve been looking all over town for Addison and can’t believe she’d turn up here willingly. Zed takes off his Z-Band and goes into full zombie mode in a bid to protect Addison from them. She quickly retrieves the band and puts it back on him. Bree then pipes up and says she thought Addison was in trouble as she texted “HELP”. It turns out Addison just wanted help with homework. As Addison and the others are about to leave, the wolves tell Addison that if she really is the Great Alpha, then putting on a moonstone necklace will prove it, by turning her into a wolf. Addison asks for a day to consider this, as it’ll change her whole life if she really is a wolf. The den is then shaken by the demolition crew testing charges at the power station across town. Addison wonders if the moonstone could be the town’s secret energy source that powers the station, and says they have to stop the demolition or else it could be destroyed forever.

The next day, everyone, including Addison’s parents, are shocked by her new “wolf look”. The cheerleaders go so far as to tell Addison she can no longer be a cheerleader if she looks like that, but Addison doesn’t care, believing she really is part of the wolf pack. Addison tells Zed she wants to put on the necklace with the wolves, but Zed, fearing she’ll no longer be part of his life if she becomes a wolf, steals the necklace and heads to his Class President debate. At the debate, Zed discovers that Bucky has been deliberating playing up the zombie angle so Zed doesn’t get elected. But the debate goes well and Zed starts to win some voters back – until his Z-Band malfunctions, thanks to being in close proximity to the moonstone necklace, and Zed starts to destroy the room. Eliza tells him to remove the moonstone from his band and he returns to normal, but the damage is already done: Zed has lost the election and probably lost Addison too.

Addison catches up with the wolves who are planning to stop the power station demolition at 5pm. Addison wants to help and tells them she’s ready to put on the necklace, but she discovers she’s lost it. Willa is angry at Addison for that as it shows she doesn’t actually care about the pack. Willa and the wolves leave and go to the power station without her. At the demolition, the wolves trigger a security alarm and are arrested for trespassing. This sets off an alarm at the school. Addison rallies the others and says they all need to go to the power station to help the wolves.

At the power station, all the high schoolers come out to protest against the demolition of the power station. They explain that the wolves are fighting for their lives as they need the moonstone. Zed manages to convince his father to delay the demolition, and the wolves are freed. Zed also returns the moonstone necklace to Addison and admits he stole it from her. Addison is angry with Zed for doing that, and puts on the necklace in front of the wolves. She is excited for her transformation – but nothing happens. She wasn’t the Great Alpha after all…. To make things worse, the demolition malfunctions and the power station detonates. The town manages to flee just in time. The wolves’ necklaces instantly lose power and they collapse, becoming dangerously weak. They don’t have much time.

As the humans ready themselves for Prawn that evening, Zed sees the wolves all struggling and convinces both wolves and zombies to crash Prawn. As Bucky is about to pull the monster alarm at school to stop them, Willa threatens to attack him. Bucky lets them go inside! There, Zed apologises to Addison for what he did, and explains he was scared of losing her. Addison accepts his apology. Suddenly, there is a huge earthquake, and the ground splits apart, revealing a huge chasm along a fault line. The group decide to follow the fault line, believing it will take them to the moonstone. Sure enough, they find the moonstone buried underground at the power station site. The wolves instantly recharge their necklaces on it, but it needs to be moved. Everyone comes together to try and move it, but they become trapped by a boulder. Zed removes his Z-Band so he can lift up the boulder and allow everyone else through with the moonstone. The moonstone is safely freed from the cave. However, just as everything seems rosy again, rocks begin falling and Zed disappears in a cloud of dust and rubble. The others hold their breath and wait to see what has happened to Zed. And Zed just calmly walks back to them, with his Z-Band back on!

Now, it’s time to get back to Prawn. At Prawn, as the group celebrate, Willa gives Addison a moonstone necklace to thank her for all her help. Bucky also decides to make Addison Cheer Captain now that he is Class President. Addison and Zed have their first kiss, and have their picture taken to go up on the Wall of Fame at school, being the first ever zombie-human couple to be on there.

But that’s not all. Just when you thought the movie was over, we see Addison asleep at home, and a glowing blue comet falls to Earth through her window. Addison briefly wakes up, and we discover that her hair is glowing blue! So, her hair does mean something!

CHARACTERS & CAST

Many cast members returned to reprise their roles from ZOMBIES.

This includes Milo Manheim and Meg Donnelly who return as Zed and Addison. In ZOMBIES 2, Zed and Addison seem to be comfortable in their relationship, with Seabrook now accepting them as a couple since anti-monster laws are not being enforced anymore. They’re going to Prawn together and everything seems to be great. But they didn’t count on the wolves coming to the town. The wolves create friction between the two, as Zed first becomes jealous of Addison and her friendship with wolf Wyatt, and then when Addison starts to be welcomed into the wolf pack. Despite Addison wanting to find a family she belongs with, since her white hair means she can’t be just a boring human, Zed doesn’t understand that, and tries to stop her from getting close to the wolves. In the end, though, Addison isn’t a wolf and the two make up at Prawn, before helping their new friends with their quest to retrieve the moonstone, so they can be healthy once more.  

Zed and Addison’s friends Eliza, Bonzo, and Bree also return to the sequel. This time, Bree and Bonzo are in a blossoming romance, this being another human-zombie couple, showing that progress has been made. Although this also means that with the monsters banned from Prawn, the two are struggling with the idea that they can’t go to the dance together either, just like Zed and Addison. Meanwhile, Eliza is also back to her rebellious self, protesting against the demolition of the power station, which seems to go down in her list of causes after the anti-monster laws are reenacted. Then, Eliza’s main cause is to help Zed become Class President, since he’s too square to crash Prawn like she wants, which is a much simpler option than trying to beat out Bucky to be Class President. I don’t think even if Zed had become Class President, it would’ve been that simple to get the zombies re-invited to Prawn. School councils seem to be more for show than real action.

To be honest, I don’t feel like we got to see very much of Eliza, Bonzo, or Bree in ZOMBIES 2, which is a shame, since they are each funny and interesting in their own ways. It seems like they got pushed aside, to allow for new characters to take the spotlight. That’s fair enough, but I still think there could’ve been a storyline written for these three. Kylee Russell, James Godfrey, and Carla Jeffrey returned to Disney to reprise these roles.

This wasn’t even the only group that didn’t get as much screen time as they had in ZOMBIES. Bucky and the Aceys didn’t appear too much either, other than at the beginning with the Cheer Camp stuff and then again at the Class President debate. Trevor Tordjman, who returned to play Bucky, has so much energy and star power that this was a real disappointment to me when watching ZOMBIES 2. He’s mean but funny at the same time, but we only really saw any of that in two or three scenes. I’m not as big a fan of the Aceys, especially after seeing them shred Zed and Addison’s letters – that’s cruel even for them – but again, them bouncing off Bucky’s personality was a highlight of ZOMBIES.

Lacey and Stacey were back in the Aceys trio, with actresses Emilia McCarthy and Jasmine Renée Thomas reprising their roles, but Mickeey Nguyen was not back as Tracey. Instead, a new Acey was added, this being Jacey, who reminds everyone that his name is actually Kevin. Bucky didn’t like that. Did Jacey not get the memo? When you change your name to be an Acey, that’s your identity forever. You can forget all about being Kevin! Anyway, Noah Zulfikar was cast as Jacey, or Kevin, having previously appeared as Kingston in the Canadian teen drama series The Next Step (2013-25) from Season 5 of the show, which aired in 2017. Trevor Tordjman played James in this same show.

Now on to the new characters who took the spotlight away from some of the originals. That might sound bitter but it’s not supposed to be, because I actually liked the werewolves’ addition to the ZOMBIES franchise. Meg Donnelly compared the addition of these new cast members as like attending a new school where everyone already knows each other, however, she said that the new cast were welcomed by everyone and they all became close really fast[1].

The leader of the wolf pack is Willa. She is a strong leader, and very outspoken. She wants to find the moonstone because the fate of the pack really does rest with her as their leader, but she is distrusting of Wyatt’s idea that Addison must be the Great Alpha because of her white hair. She doesn’t like Addison’s peppy optimism and doesn’t think she could possibly be their Alpha, at least initially. It’s quite clear as Willa spends more time with Addison that she starts to be hopeful that Addison is the solution to their problems, but when it turns out she isn’t, Willa can’t help but be disappointed. Luckily, neither the humans nor the zombies give up on the wolves, and together, they find the moonstone, allowing the wolves to return to full health. Also, now, they are welcome in Seabrook.

Chandler Kinney was cast as Willa. Prior to her role in ZOMBIES 2, Kinney had been cast as Catherine Dillman in Gortimer Gibbon’s Life on Normal Street (2014-16) for Amazon Prime. She went on to play Riana Murtagh in the Fox series Lethal Weapon (2016-19).

Next, we have Wyatt, Willa’s brother, who seems to have tunnel vision, focusing solely on Addison as being their saviour. But this shows how much he cares about the pack and wants to be proactive. Instead of just sitting around watching the other wolves become weaker, he’d rather be out there pursuing one course of action even if it turns out to be the wrong one. Wyatt is also an adversary of Zed, as he develops a fairly close relationship with Addison quite early on, leading to Zed to believe that Wyatt is trying to steal his girl. Come on, Zed. The wolves have much bigger issues in their lives than messing with your love life.

Wyatt was played by Pearce Joza, who had been cast in the recurring role of Logan on the Nickelodeon series Legendary Dudas (2016) prior to his role in the ZOMBIES franchise. He also starred as Spyder in the Disney Channel and Disney XD science-fiction series Mech-X4 (2016-18) around the same time.

The other wolf pack member we focus on in ZOMBIES 2 is Wynter. Wynter is passionate, if a bit eccentric[2]! She has some odd suggestions, such as wanting to track Addison down with their “key sense of smell”, which is a bit creepy; and trying to prove that she can deal with her wolf allergy to silver by grabbing one of the school’s trophies, before it burns her hand and she has to let it go! She also eats Bree’s homework at one point, leading to the classic joke: “that dog ate my homework”. Except that’s really quite offensive to call a wolf a dog, surely. It is very Twilight Saga though.

Wynter was played by singer and social media personality Ariel Martin, who also goes by the name Baby Ariel. On screen, Martin appeared as Dru in Season 2 of the YouTube web series Chicken Girls (2017-23), and its spin-off series Baby Doll Records (2018). Also prior to her role in ZOMBIES 2, Martin was cast as Kenzie Messina in the television movie Bixler High Private Eye (2019) for Nickelodeon. She also won the Teen Choice Award for Choice Muser in both 2016 and 2017. 

MUSIC

The soundtrack for ZOMBIES 2 consists of almost double the original songs that existed in ZOMBIES. This time, there are nine original songs, with eight of these appearing in the film, and a customary reprise of Zed and Addison’s love song, “Someday”.

Going in film order, the first song we hear is “We Got This”. This song details a bit of a recap into the lives of the humans and zombies at Seabrook, such as discussing the newly integrated Seabrook Cheer Squad, and the zombies discuss the planned demolition of the power plant and their increased freedoms, like going to Prawn. Although Zed and the zombies are perhaps talking about important topics in their parts of the song, I love this song mostly for the Cheer Camp sequences, especially that obstacle course – it has a zipwire; that makes it awesome, and is likely the predominant reason why this is my favourite song in the film! “We Got This” is performed by the main cast, excluding the wolves who we haven’t met at this point, and was written by Mitch Allan, Chantry Johnson, and Michelle Zarlenga.

Following that is “We Own the Night”, the introduction to the werewolves as they head to Seabrook High School in the dead of night. This song details their determination and focus on their desire to find the Great Alpha, who Wyatt believes is Addison, and find the moonstone so they can live peacefully again. This song is pretty cool and a good opening song for the werewolves. “We Own the Night” was performed by Pearce Joza, Chandler Kinney, and Ariel Martin, as Wyatt, Willa, and Wynter respectively, and the number was written by Antonina Armato, Tim James Price, Thomas Armato Sturges, and Adam Schmalzholz. Due to the popularity of this song, Disney officially released a video of a mashup between “We Own the Night” and Descendants 3’s “Night Falls”.

This same writing team also wrote the next song in the movie, “Like the Zombies Do”. In “Like the Zombies Do”, Zed is trying to help the wolves integrate in Seabrook life by behaving “like the zombies do”, because he hopes if he does this, then the wolves will vote for him for Class President. It takes a while to convince the wolves, but in the end, they pretend to do this, so they can get closer to Addison without looking suspicious. This song sounds very much like the song “Uptown Funk”, or at least the beginning of it does. To be honest, this is one of the songs in ZOMBIES 2 that I’m not a big fan of, but I can see what they were trying to do, and it gave Milo Manheim an opportunity to show off his singing abilities as the lead performer of this song, who mentioned this song as being his favourite song in the movie. Kinney, Joza, and Kylee Russell also perform parts of this song.

A little while later, we hear the “break-up song” “Gotta Find Where I Belong”, written by Josh Cumbee and Jordan Powers, and performed by Manheim and Meg Donnelly as Zed and Addison. This was Donnelly’s favourite song in the movie, as it was a bit more of a challenge since this was the first song of its kind in the ZOMBIES movies. I do like this song, probably because it is a little bit like “Gotta Go My Own Way” from High School Musical 2 (2007), albeit a little bit quieter and less dramatic. The only issue I have with this song is the background performers, who start moving robotically in random parts of the number before moving on and walking away. This looks a bit weird to me, but I guess it was meant to show how at odds Addison feels with the other Seabrook humans, who live in a perfect world and all look and act the same.

The next song is another one for the wolves, “Call to the Wild”, also written by Antonina Armato, Tim James Price, Thomas Armato Sturges, and Adam Schmalholz. It was performed by Donnelly, Joza, Kinney, and Martin. This shows Addison being welcomed into the wolves’ den and letting her in on the fact she may be their Great Alpha. It’s a very catchy song and once again proves just how cool the wolves are. I also like the addition of tinikling, which is a traditional Philippine folk dance using bamboo poles to dance in and around, in this sequence. I had only ever heard of tinikling from an episode of the ABC sitcom The Middle (2009-18), where Sue Heck performs a tinikling routine to Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off” for P.E. credit, but it always looked fun to me.

Following that is a song clearly inspired by Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton as this is a rap battle. The song “I’m Winning” is performed by Milo Manheim and Trevor Tordjman, predominately, as Zed and Bucky as they battle for their classmates votes for Class President at the debate. Bucky is deliberately trying to bait Zed into showing the “true side” of zombies, whilst Zed is trying to prove he is a much better leader than self-obsessed Bucky. When I first watched ZOMBIES 2, I didn’t initially like “I’m Winning”, but I actually quite like it now. It’s not my favourite, but it’s quite funny. I especially like when Bucky says zombies eat brains, and Zed retorts that Bucky doesn’t have a brain so he’s safe. “I’m Winning” was written by Ali Dee Theodore, Ricardo Belfort, Doug Davis, Sarai Howard, Anthony Mirabella, Susan Paroff, James K. Petrie, and Jodie Shihadeh.

Close to the end of the movie we hear “Flesh & Bone”, which is one of the most liked songs from the ZOMBIES franchise amongst fans. At first, to me, it seemed a bit cheesy, but as the song progressed, and things start to look a bit nasty, with the wolves being arrested, and then Addison arrives with every from school, I actually started to well up. I think it’s the united front that gets me emotional, but it’s a pretty powerful song with a great chorus. “Flesh & Bone” was performed by the main cast, and was written by Tova Litvin and Doug Rockwell. In interviews, some of the ZOMBIES cast have said that although “Flesh & Bone” was a difficult number to perform, as it is quite high intensity in terms of the dancing, they loved it because it was great to see everyone together in a musical number[3]. “Flesh & Bone” was so popular that it was used as part of the short-form series Broken Karaoke for Disney Channel, where animated Disney Channel characters sing song parodies. This specific short saw the Green family, Cricket, Tilly, Gramma, and Bill, from the animated Disney series Big City Greens (2018-present) parody the song “Flesh & Bone” with a song called “Stuck at Home”. This was off the back of “Flesh & Bone” becoming a viral sensation[4]. Disney also released a mashup video of “Flesh & Bone” and “Someday” from ZOMBIES because of this.

At Prawn, we actually get two songs. The first is “Someday (Reprise)”, which Zed and Addison sing as Zed apologies for stealing Addison’s moonstone necklace and for generally not being supportive or understanding of her dream to find where she belongs. They are just about to kiss, when the ground splits open and they have to find the moonstone. “Someday” was written by Dustin Burnett and Paula Winger. It’s a sweet version of the song, and I know it’s Zed and Addison’s “love theme”, but I feel like we’ve heard this song so many different ways in just the first two movies!

The finale number is a big celebratory song at Prawn called “One For All”, where everyone is dancing together: zombies, wolves, and humans alike. Once again, like at the end of ZOMBIES, this song shows a more united Seabrook. We also see Addison becoming the official Cheer Captain, and getting a moonstone necklace from the wolves as a token of gratitude from them, and it ends with Zed and Addison’s first kiss.  Although I don’t dislike any song in the movie, this is my least favourite song within ZOMBIES 2. “One For All” was performed by the entire cast, and was written by Antonina Armato, Tim James Price, Thomas Armato Sturges, and Adam Schmalholz.

The actual final song on the ZOMBIES 2 soundtrack to mention is “The New Kid in Town”, performed by Ariel Martin, or Baby Ariel, and written by Jack Kugell, Hanna Jones, Matt Wong, and Paulina Cerrilla. This appears as the movie’s End Credits song, as well as appearing as a bonus track on the ZOMBIES 2 soundtrack. This song has nothing to do with ZOMBIES 2, although some of the cast appear in the official music video, and the “new kid in town” seems to be a werewolf. It’s quite amusing that they chose Booboo Stewart to be this guy, because he played a werewolf, Seth, in the Twilight Saga movie franchise. Stewart also played Jay, Jafar’s son, in the Descendants films. To be honest, this song isn’t for me. 

The ZOMBIES 2 soundtrack was released on 14^th February 2020, the day of the movie’s premiere. It reached No. 2 on the US Billboard Top Soundtracks chart and the US Billboard Kid Albums charts. It hit No. 44 on the US Billboard 200 chart. In comparison to the ZOMBIES soundtrack, ZOMBIES topped the Kid Albums chart on its release, but only reached No. 55 in the US Billboard 200. It is also worth noting that specific songs from ZOMBIES 2, like “Flesh & Bone” and “Like the Zombies Do”, did incredibly well online.

George S. Clinton and Amit May Cohen are credited as the composers of the score for ZOMBIES 2. The score of ZOMBIES 2 was later released in November 2020, in the album Music from ZOMBIES (Original Score), which also includes the score from ZOMBIES.

PRODUCTION

The original ZOMBIES was based on an unaired pilot for a Disney Channel television series, titled Zombies & Cheerleaders. Little information is known about this pilot, other than it followed a zombie and a cheerleader as they fall in love whilst at high school[5].Disney Channel later decided to use this pilot as inspiration for ZOMBIES, and writers of the Zombies & Cheerleaders pilot episode, David Light and Joseph Raso, were tasked with reworking their material to fit the Disney Channel musical format.

Light and Raso returned to write ZOMBIES 2. The writing duo stated that the inclusion of the werewolves was to give a new challenge for the people of Seabrook, in order to challenge the town’s progress. However, to ensure this sequel was not just a rehash of the original – a trap many sequels fall into, unwittingly or not – the werewolf characters were made to be quite different from the zombies. Zombies wanted to integrate at high school, to feel like they finally belong in Seabrook. The wolves on the other hand aren’t interested in being at school and don’t want to play by the same rules as the zombies. They only pretend to integrate so they can get to Addison, and potentially the moonstone. Light and Raso were aware that zombies and werewolves are popular concepts for movies and television series, but their movies are different because they make their zombie and werewolves characters not scary, to appeal to children who otherwise would be unwilling to watch screen projects with those scarier characters. The writers were honoured to be back for a sequel, and were overwhelmed by the support they received for ZOMBIES. They were glad that the movie allowed for conversations to be opened up, particularly around difficult topics like fighting for freedom, and standing up for your beliefs[6].

Director Paul Hoen also returned to the world of Disney Channel’s ZOMBIES to lead the production of ZOMBIES 2. Hoen has directed numerous DCOMs over the years, including Let It Shine (2012); Cloud 9 (2014); Invisible Sister (2015); and Jump In! (2007).

Production for ZOMBIES 2 began in Spring 2019, after being announced in February 2019. ZOMBIES was cable television’s No.1 rated telecast among kids 6-11 and tweens 9-14 in 2018, gaining 12.8 million viewers over 10 showings of the movie, so naturally a sequel made sense in that respect[7].

Once again, production returned to Ontario, Canada for filming. Some of the locations from the first movie were used again in the sequel. Sugar Beach in Toronto was also seen in the sequel after appearing in the first movie, being used for the opening shot of ZOMBIES 2, when Zed is climbing out of the sand during a day at the beach with his family and friends. Cherry Beach in Toronto was another location, making up the outside of Seabrook High in both the first two movies[8]. 

There were a couple of other filming locations that were unique to ZOMBIES 2. Apparently, there was use of the Rockwood Conservation Area in Ontario, which was presumably used for their shots of the Forbidden Forest, where the werewolves reside. Another location was supposedly the North Building at the University of Toronto Mississauga. The song “I’m Winning” seems to have been filmed inside this building, so must’ve been used as the location for Seabrook High’s auditorium. The University of Toronto Mississauga was also used to film numerous scenes within another 2020 Disney movie, Secret Society of Second-Born Royals.

With an expanding Seabrook, new sets were needed, and this area was headed by production designer Mark Hofeling, who also returned to work on this ZOMBIES sequel.

Although we got to see some of Zombietown in the original movie, this was mostly limited to seeing just a few zombie residences. In ZOMBIES 2, Zombietown was expanded so viewers could see the businesses popping up around Seabrook which were being owned and operated by zombies. This is probably because zombies were not allowed to run businesses in the original movie, because of those anti-monster laws. This ever-increasing Zombietown demonstrates the increased freedoms the zombies have been experiencing since we last saw them at the end of ZOMBIES. These streets are still decorated with bright colours and makeshift furniture and ornaments, as the houses were in ZOMBIES.

In comparison, Seabrook hasn’t really changed all that much. The school is still sleek and pristine, repping the school colours of pink and green. The Cheer Camp also features these colours heavily, from the school bus through to the obstacle course itself. The school prom, or “Prawn”, is decorated with the signature pastels of pink and blue that we saw in the first movie. Many of the human residents still wear these signature colours too, showing that although Seabrook claim to be inclusive and have integrated zombies into their lives, they actually haven’t changed all that much themselves.

Then, we have the addition of the werewolves in ZOMBIES 2, who live very differently from both the humans and the zombies. They live in a den in the forest, not in houses on typical streets, so this was an additional challenge for designing sets. The wolves’ den is complete with a wooden roof, carved rocks and stones, as well as ornamentation that is themed to the moon and stars, very much matching the werewolf culture. The den is meant to look rustic, showcasing how it was built sustainably with nature in mind.

The final thing in production and sets I’d like to mention is the fault line and cavern holding the moonstone. A whole set had to be built of both of these. The ground had to look precarious and like it could all collapse at any second, but obviously be safe enough for the cast and crew to travel through in order to film the necessary sequences. The pink, glowing moonstone sits in the centre of a crumbling cavern. The behind-the-scenes footage and photos of this set are really cool, and I didn’t really consider the work that would’ve been needed to construct it as I was watching ZOMBIES 2[9].

Alongside this, some alterations to costumes from the first movie were required to match the evolving town of Seabrook, as well as the new costuming for the werewolves.

The zombies in ZOMBIES 2 now don’t have to wear their government-approved clothing. I will be perfectly honest and say this was not something I noticed, but looking back at footage from both movies, I can now see that Zed is in grey jeans, and Eliza is wearing a corduroy skirt in the sequel. I think the reason I didn’t notice is because the zombies are still wearing the darker colours they wore in the first film, like reds, greens, and blacks, obviously to differentiate themselves from the humans by showcasing the best zombie fashion trends.

The werewolves had to choose some other colour palette that wasn’t dark colours or bright pastels, because this new group had to have their own costuming style. This is why purples and golds – but no silver; wolves are allergic to silver – feature in the werewolves’ outfit, as well as to reflect regalness, since the werewolves are a very proud pack. They also wear some burnt oranges and blacks. Each wolf has their own markings too, and they had to consider how many the characters would have[10]. Just like the zombies, the werewolves customised their outfits too, with Wyatt wearing more leather and suede, Willa having a band around her leg to signal herself as the leader of the pack, and Wynter wearing a faux fur wristband. Each of their moonstone necklaces are slightly different from each other too[11].

The humans’ costumes haven’t changed much between movies, although the Seabrook Cheer Squad outfits are slightly different. The girls’ skirts and guys’ tracksuit bottoms are now white instead of pink, and they no longer wear long-sleeved tops. But at the heart of Seabrook still live a collection of humans who love their pastel blues and pinks, as we see by their prom outfits. Bree turns up in a light pink dress, and Addison in a light blue one, for example, whereas the zombies show up in their signature reds and greens, and the wolves in their golds and purples.

For the hair and makeup, it was a slight complaint of some of the cast members playing zombies that they spent over an hour, sometimes two hours, sometimes more, with the team getting ready for their day of filming since their skin had to be spray-painted to make it as pale as possible. Well, it seems that this time was able to be reduced to around 45 minutes to one hour, so I’m sure that made that section of the cast happy. However, this then meant that those playing the werewolves took longer, as their makeup routine was newer to the crew. Ariel Martin and Chandler Kinney stated that they took about three hours in hair and makeup every day, with specific attention being given to their unique wolf markings no doubt. Pearce Joza said that he did a makeup test at one point that took around seven hours! This time did eventually reduce as production went on[12]. But all three said they completely appreciated all the effort that was put into their costume, hair, and makeup, with Martin going so far as to say she felt powerful when she had her costume on[13].

The costume designer on ZOMBIES 2 was Trysha Bakker, who won a CAFTCAD (The Canadian Alliance for Film and Television Costume Arts and Design) Award for Best Costume Design in Film Sci-Fi/Fantasy for her work here. Bakker went on to work on the costumes for ZOMBIES 3 (2022), as well as the DCOM Spin (2021). Julia Valente returned to the set of ZOMBIES 2 after working on ZOMBIES as the makeup department head.

Again, the music of ZOMBIES 2 goes hand-in-hand with its choreography. Jennifer Weber, known for projects such as working on the musical & Juliet, and Off-Broadway’s KPOP, was tasked with choreographing for ZOMBIES 2.  Weber had seen the first movie and loved its message of acceptance, so was glad to have the opportunity to choreograph the sequel. There were many different dance styles used in this movie, from commercial hip-hop, to breaking, street dance, and of course, the traditional cheerleading routines that are seen mostly in the opening song “We Got This”. Weber and her team collaborated with cheer coaches and choreographers Patrick Mislan and Megan MacLennan on these routines, and professional cheerleaders were on hand for the high tosses and the pyramids, as they were on ZOMBIES[14]. After auditioning dancers in Toronto for the film and to find crew to develop the choreography, work on drafting the nine musical numbers took roughly three weeks. This was followed by four weeks of rehearsal with cast before filming took place, which was a similar amount of rehearsal time as the cast had on the first ZOMBIES[15].

RECEPTION

ZOMBIES 2 premiered on 14^th February 2020, which just so happened to be Valentine’s Day, a perfect day to see the next instalment of Addison and Zed’s love story.

In preparation for the premiere date, some of the cast had been out and about promoting the film. For example, Kylee Russell and Trevor Tordjman went to the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex at Walt Disney World Resort to host the halftime show at the Pop Warner Super Bowl and National Cheer and Dance Championships. Here, they presented the halftime show which featured a performance by a cheerleading squad, dressed as both cheerleaders and zombies, to the song “BAMM” from ZOMBIES. There was even a dance battle between the “poms” and the “zoms”. Tordjman and Russell also gave a brief explanation of the plot of ZOMBIES 2, promising more music, more dancing, and more drama in the sequel in this promotional video[16]. This was very similar to when Milo Manheim and Meg Donnelly presented the debut of a ZOMBIES-themed cheerleading routine at the grand opening of The Arena at ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida in 2018.

There was also ZOMBIES 2: The Collab, a collaboration between Disney Channel and various influencers and reality personalities. This was a short sketch which saw these influencers and reality stars performing as the ZOMBIES 2 characters, as Addison, Zed, and all the other Seabrook high schoolers see the werewolves arrive in their cafeteria, with Addison quickly introducing herself to them. I’m not particularly “on trend” with who was popular then. I’m not younger enough and I don’t care enough to know, but I did spot plenty of stars from Dance Moms (2011-19) in this video, like Mackenzie Ziegler as Addison; Kendall Vertes as a zombie; Chloe Lukasiak as a werewolf; and Nia Sioux as Willa[17].

On its release, ZOMBIES 2 once again received mixed reviews, although it does hold a 100% Critics’ Score on Rotten Tomatoes. Amongst fans, some said that ZOMBIES 2 was even better than original. I am one of those people. The music was generally considered better than the songs within the first movie, probably in part because there were double the number of original songs in ZOMBIES 2 than its predecessor, and the chemistry between the two leads continued to be praised. Other still positive but less glowing responses said ZOMBIES 2 was good for kids, or good in general, but nothing like High School Musical. Nothing will ever match up to those films so it’s best if we just all agree to stop comparing all Disney Channel musicals to them.

But then again, those who did not like ZOMBIES decided to watch the sequel and make the same points once again about why they didn’t like ZOMBIES 2, for example, because it’s “cringey” and “doesn’t make sense”. This is simply down to preference and I can’t make many comments on that. If you didn’t like the first ZOMBIES, you shouldn’t have chosen to watch the sequel, because it’s quite clear you’re going to get more of the same. Don’t watch sequels just to continue moaning about a movie franchise. Find something new to moan about instead!

Outside of that, there are a couple of negative comments that are worth pointing out. One is that ZOMBIES 2 shoehorns werewolves into the plot just to set up the same conflict that we saw in the original ZOMBIES film. I understand this point; it is quite a random addition, and something I spoke about in my introduction. I personally didn’t mind because I liked the werewolves as characters. There were also unanswered questions, such as: if Addison wasn’t the Great Alpha, then who is? And how did the wolves get to the moonstone without the Alpha? The biggest one is all about why Addison’s hair is the way it is, with the explanation to this being set up at the end of ZOMBIES 2, to tease a ZOMBIES 3. This irritated some viewers, not necessarily because they didn’t want yet another sequel, although that was also a complaint, but because ZOMBIES 2 had set up for Addison to become a wolf – and then she didn’t. This made ZOMBIES 2 seem pointless and like it was just filler in an overall trilogy. There were further comments that there were too many side plots, like Zed wanting to be Class President, and Addison wanting to be Cheer Captain, which ultimately didn’t deliver much, and meant that precious screentime was taken away from getting to properly meet the wolves, or catch up with other characters from the first ZOMBIES. I also agree with this comment in part, though I felt like we got to follow the plight of the wolves quite closely, even with the side plots.

There was also still no getting away from the comparisons between ZOMBIES and the Descendants trilogy, which in a way got worse, because Descendants 3 had come out in August 2019, just a few months before ZOMBIES 2 did, and felt like a fitting ending to the trilogy, not to mention that it was the last Disney movie fans were ever going to see with Cameron Boyce, who sadly passed away in July 2019.

ZOMBIES 2 allegedly reached nearly 5 million viewers on its premiere night, beating out the viewership of the first movie, and becoming the highest rating for Disney Channel since the premiere of Descendants 3[18]. However, I have also seen the figure 2.5 million online for the ZOMBIES 2 premiere viewership, so it’s unclear if 5 million viewers actually watched ZOMBIES 2 across its first 24 hours or something similar, instead of solely on its premiere. Who knows? Viewer numbers aren’t always easy to verify.

As well as its award for costuming, ZOMBIES 2 was also nominated for Best Editing for Lisa Binkley, at the Canadian Cinema Editors Awards and the Leo Awards.

LEGACY

Following on from ZOMBIES 2’s initial success, for the Halloween season, a series of animated shorts premiered on Disney Channel in October 2020.

This series was titled Zombies: Addison’s Moonstone Mystery, with production of this being announced shortly after the ZOMBIES 2 premiere. In this series, set after the events of ZOMBIES 2, there were eight roughly five-minute short videos, which saw Addison, Zed, and the others trying to discover what new girl, Vanna, is hiding about herself. This series was met with positive reviews, so a second animated series of six shorts titled Zombies: Addison’s Monster Mystery aired a year later in October 2021. It followed the group trying to save Seabrook High’s Halloween Fall Ball from a “Monster Shrimpy”. The main cast of Milo Manheim, Meg Donnelly, Eliza Russell, Pearce Joza, Ariel Martin, and Chandler Kinney returned to voice their characters from ZOMBIES 2 in these series. Songs from the movie as well as some original songs apparently featured in the animated shorts.

There was also a live-action and animated series titled Zombies 2: Wolf Tales which aired in March 2020, just after ZOMBIES 2 aired. It is meant to take place I suppose during the events of the song “Call of the Wild”, since it sees Addison trying to ask the wolves questions about their history and about the moonstone in their den after she has had her makeover to look like the Great Alpha. But instead of answering Addison’s questions, the pack tell random stories that are of no use to her! Meg Donnelly, Pearce Joza, Chandler Kinney, and Ariel Martin reprise their characters of Addison, Wyatt, Willa, and Wynter respectively in this very short series, where each episode is only about a minute long.

Outside of these specific ZOMBIES 2-related shows, the ZOMBIES 2 cast made other appearances in Disney projects. One of these is the Disney Holiday Magic Quest series, with two of these being made in 2020 and 2021. These both aired on Disney Channel before being added to Disney+.

The Disney Holiday Magic Quest in 2020 was hosted by former Disney Channel star Raven-Symoné, and saw Milo Manheim and Kylee Russell go up against Ariel Martin and Pearce Joza as they competed in challenges across a night at Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World Resort in order to stop Maleficent and the Evil Queen from stealing the “holiday magic” and to raise money for the charity Toys for Tots. Meg Donnelly and Ariel Martin’s family also appeared on video calls to help with the teams’ challenges. This all culminated in a final showdown on an obstacle course in front of Cinderella Castle.

The Disney Holiday Magic Quest in 2021 was hosted by Yvette Nicole Brown, and saw Milo Manheim and Kylee Russell return to compete in challenges across the night at Walt Disney World, but their opposition this time were Meg Donnelly and Trevor Tordjman. In this special, they had to retrieve the star from atop the Holiday Tree which Maleficent divided into three pieces and hid throughout Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Toys for Tots were once again the charity the stars were raising money for. Video calls from Ariel Martin and Trevor Tordjman’s family featured this time in two challenges. This Disney Holiday Magic Quest also seemed to be partly promotional for the Walt Disney World 50^th Anniversary celebration. These TV specials a little bit cheesy, for adults at least, but I’m all for seeing celebrities running around Walt Disney World, or any Disney Park for that matter, so I liked them.

Meg Donnelly also made another Disney appearance, at the Disney Parks Magical Christmas Day Parade in 2021, performing “Jingle Bell Rock” this time. Her introduction briefly mentioned that Donnelly would be starring in the upcoming ZOMBIES 3. That’s right. Arguably the most important thing to come after ZOMBIES 2 was the March 2021 official announcement that ZOMBIES 3 was coming. We could already assume that ZOMBIES 3 would look further into why Addison has white hair, since we saw it glowing blue at the end of ZOMBIES 2. We would just have to wait and see what else ZOMBIES 3 had in store for us.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Personally, I have a history of liking sequels more than the original movie. There are obviously exceptions to that, but definitely in the DCOM musical world, I tend to prefer a movie’s second film to its first.

I don’t really know why that is, but perhaps it has something to do with the concept of the movie feeling more solid in its second outing, or just because the cast are more comfortable in their characters and can up their performances. It could simply be that Disney Channel trust in the original movie’s popularity, and want to please fans by making their second movie bigger and better in all aspects, particularly the music.

ZOMBIES 2 is not an exception to this for me. I like the music of ZOMBIES 2 so much more; I think the werewolves are a great addition to Seabrook; and it feels like the cast are happy in their roles. It’s a great film that fans of the original should have been proud of.

Now, my track record of liking the third movie in a trilogy is mixed. I’ll be honest, I did not like ZOMBIES 3 when I first watched it in 2022. I’ll have to see if it can sway my opinion after rewatching.

REFERENCES

[1] Credit: Zach Johnson, ‘Everything You Need to Know About ZOMBIES 2’, D23.com, 10^th February 2020.

[2] Credit: Zach Johnson, ‘Awoo! Meet the Werewolves in Disney Channel’s ZOMBIES 2’, D23.com, 11^th February 2020.

[3] Credit: Disney Channel, ‘Puppy Q&A Challenges with Meg, Milo, and Ariel! I Compilation I ZOMBIES 2 I Disney Channel’, Disney Channel Music YouTube Channel, 27^th April 2020.

[4] Credit: Avery Thompson, ‘‘Big City Greens’ Crew Parodies ‘Zombies 2’ Hit ‘Flesh & Bone’ For ‘Broken Karaoke’ – Watch Sneak Peek’, HollywoodLife.com, 17^th June 2020.

[5] Credit: IMDB, ‘Zombies and Cheerleaders’, IMDB.com, date unknown.

[6] Credit: Paul Perrello, ‘“ZOMBIES 2” Prowls Onto Disney Channel’, LaughingPlace.com, 14^th February 2020.

[7] Credit: Bruce Haring, ‘Disney’s ‘Zombies 2’ Sequel Heads Into Production With Returning Stars, Directors, Writers’, Deadline.com, 11^th February 2019.

[8] Credit: Varun Patel, ‘Where Was Disney’s ‘Zombies’ Shot?’, TheCinemaholic.com, 14^th February 2020.

[9] Credit: Mark Hofeling, ‘DISNEY’S Z-O-M-B-I-E-S 2’, MarkHofeling.com, date unknown.

[10] Credit: Zoe Hewitt, ‘How Disney Channel’s ‘Zombies 2’ Production Team Made Monsters Kid-Friendly;’, Yahoo.com, 21^st February 2020.

[11] Credit: Stacey Grant, ’11 Shocking Zombies 2 Secrets from Milo Manheim, Meg Donnelly, & Ariel Martin’, Seventeen.com, 18^th February 2020.

[12] Credit: J-14, ‘ZOMBIES 2 Cast Shares Funny Behind-the-Scenes Memories’, J-14 Magazine YouTube Channel, 12^th February 2020.

[13] Credit: Disney Channel, ‘Puppy Q&A Challenges with Meg, Milo, and Ariel! I Compilation I ZOMBIES 2 I Disney Channel’, Disney Channel Music YouTube Channel, 27^th April 2020.

[14] Credit: Ruthie Fierberg, ‘Watch: Inside the Cheerleading-Meets-Hip-Hop Choreography of Disney Channel’s Zombies 2’, Playbill.com, 13^th February 2020.

[15] Credit: Cadence Neenan, ‘Choreographer Jennifer Weber Shares What It Was Like on Set for “ZOMBIES 2”’, DanceSpirit.com, 11^th February 2020.

[16] Credit: Disney Channel, ‘ZOMBIES Pop Warner Super Bowl! I ZOMBIES 2 I Disney Channel’, Disney Channel Music YouTube Channel, 12^th January 2020.

[17] Credit: Mackenzie Ziegler, ‘ZOMBIES 2: The Collab’, kenzie YouTube Channel, 2^nd February 2020.

[18] Credit: Sarah Jae Lieber, ‘RATINGS: ZOMBIES 2 Delivers 1.9 Million Kids and Nearly 5 Million Total Viewers for Disney Channel’, BroadwayWorld.com, 2^nd March 2020.