Disney Channel and Disney Plus have greenlit a fifth Zombie movie, but series stars Milo Manheim and Meg Donnelly are not expected to return to their roles as Zed and Addison.
Zombies 5 will instead star Malachi Barton and Freya Skye, reprising their roles as Victor and Nova from Zombies 4: Rise of the Vampire. Manheim and Donnelly will continue to work on the series as executive producers.
Additionally, Trevor Tordjman returns as Bucky, along with other cast members including Swayam Bhatia as Bella, Julian Lerner as Ray, and Mekonnen Naif as Vargas. The new trio of mermaids will be played by Diana Babnikova as Pearl, Taylor Oliver as Finn, and Olive Mortimer as Sandy. Emily Costorici joins the cast as Izzy, a zombie who is described as “Zed’s zombie cousin and transfer student.”
Production will begin in New Zealand this spring.
“Zombies has become a defining franchise for today’s generation,” said Ayo Davis, president of Disney Branded Television. “With each film, we intentionally push the story somewhere new. Introducing mermaids in Zombies 5 opens up a completely different dynamic, while staying true to the music, characters, and themes of unity and acceptance that are at the heart of these films.”
The official Zombies 5 logline reads: “The newly forged peace between Daywalkers and Vampires is put to the test when a group of ferocious mermaids arrive in Rayburn, raising waves and playing a convincing siren song to lure in new allies. Nova and Victor must once again unite the group to find out what the mermaids truly want in order to protect the fragile harmony they’ve worked so hard to forge.”
Paul Hoen returns as director and executive producer, with Hoen having previously directed all films in the series. In addition to Manheim and Donnelly, Jane Fleming, Mark Ordesky, Joseph Raso and David Wright will serve as executive producers. Produced by Scott Bright, with choreography by Dondrajko Johnson and an original score by Tom Howe. Chris Hazzard, Michael Fontana, and Edie Fay are all attached as screenwriters for the fifth film.
“Zombie” movies have become a major series of Disney Channel original movies. The first three films were all ratings and streaming hits, with the fourth one racking up 9.3 million views worldwide in its first nine days of streaming, rising to 43 million views in less than six months, according to Disney streaming data.
