When it comes to tribute zombies to past films that made the genre great, Greg Nicotero has been on the ball on delivering homage to the zombies of the past. In a recent interview in Beauty World News he expands on the tribute zombies as well as gives us an idea of what is to come in the future. Let’s take a look!
“I love the tribute zombies! The tribute zombies are always a lot of fun because I get the opportunity to pay tribute to the zombies that I loved over the years. In Season 3, one of my favorites was the airport zombie from ‘Dawn of the Dead,’ in the episode where Merle (Michael Rooker) dies, he’s sitting in the car outside of the bar and the plaid shirt zombie from ‘Dawn of the Dead’ walks out and walks past the car. That was one of my favorites only because we got a guy who was really really close to the original character.
Last season we did a little Lucio Fulci reference, ‘American Werewolf in London,’ Bub – we had the chance to do a couple of really fun ones. It’s always interesting to see who catches them the next day. Simon Pegg emailed me about last season, ‘Hey, I saw Bub!'”
Nicotero said that for Season 5, they have only done two so far, but he revealed that there is a “little in-joke tribute” in the first episode. “I’m curious if people will catch or not, it’s not a makeup it’s an actual reference to another movie,” he explained.
This “little in-joke tribute” may be the gag he was referring to during his recent interview with The Los Angeles Register. He said that in an attempt to keep the show fresh, they decided to put some great gags along the way. One of those involves what Nicotero graphically described as “a swimming pool of pea soup with walkers falling apart in it.”
“We’ve been able to take situations that the walkers would occur in, like a flooded basement or something, and imagine if they had been in there a year or so, what elements would they have faced,” he said.
“We’ve done some stuff this season that far exceeds even the burn walkers, the crispy guys – and the well walker, the moss walker that’s trapped under the tree – I feel like those were all sort of appetizers to some of the stuff we’ve done [in Season 5],” Nicotero teased. “I love putting those little things in there.”
I for one can’t wait to check out the tributes this season and really hope we have some fun ones that are both subtle and in your face to the true zombie fanatics out there.
