George Romero Explains Why There Isn't a Land of the Dead Sequel

In my review of Survival of the Dead, I wondered why George Romero didn't make a sequel to Land of the Dead, since the end of the movie positively sits up and begs for one (I can see the marquee now: Land of the Dead 2: Big Daddy's House!).

My review has a whole bunch of questions of why Romero hasn't explored more of the zombie evolution he began with in Day of the Dead, all of which is totally worth reading, but before you go jumping to another page, read what Romero said to STYD about why he didn't make a Land sequel.

You have to go Beyond Thunderdome with the story. I don't think I want to do that. I don't want to get to the point where zombies rules the world. And I don't want to get to the point where it's just everybody living together. I think I got as close as I could to that with the end of Land where they decide to lay off for now. I don't think so. Especially now that we basically have a whole new franchise. I would like to just do this set and scram for a while. If I have the energy and I'm still on my feet, we have a couple of projects I'd really like to do. Keep them within a budget because I don't want to come down here and have to pitch anything for a year and a half.

Now I get it. Because it would be expensive. And complicated. Land, as I say in my review (man, what a review!), was close in spirit to Toe Tags, the comic book Romero wrote where zombie tribes ruled the apocalyptic Earth. Clearly, Romero thinks that the next step post-Land would be filming a Toe Tags-esque zombie movie.

That was too big. It was stupid because I think I might have been able to make a movie deal on it if it was producible, but it's not.

Instead, Romero plans to shoot 2 more zombie movies featuring characters from Diary of the Dead. And those movies, should Romero make them, will cement his zombie "rules".

Nobody knows there's one big rule change in [Survival]. The characters don't even find out because they're too busy shooting at each other. The humans don't know. But I love playing with things like that and there are a couple of other things I'd like to do and do them in the context of this interwoven stories.

I'd like to set up the rules more. Zombies don't run. [laughs] A little bit of that stuff. Do they shit? There's a lot to discuss here. I have all of those ideas spinning in my head and I'd like to put out my own little bible. And if there are any questions left unanswered…well, I'll answer them on e-mail.

Do zombies shit? Romero, I believe you got more ideas, but that's a terrible example. That's a barrel-scraper if I ever heard one.

P.S. I still think he should make a Land of the Dead sequel. For what it's worth. Though, he clearly disagrees, telling CHUD:

Zombies are the hurricane that happens and the stories are people stories. That's why I never want to go beyond where I went in Land, in terms of an ending and having the zombies take over the world, because that's not what it's about for me. Here's this game-changing thing happening, guys, and you're fucking arguing about the basement. That's what I enjoy the most and I never want to go past that.

Source: STYD / CHUD