George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead series is a sprawling, multimedia franchise with numerous sequels, remakes, and off-shoots. The amount of projects to follow in the wake of Romero’s seminal 1968 film, Night of the Living Dead, is perhaps unrivaled. It didn’t just launch a franchise; it launched an entire genre. In fact, the franchise specific to Night of the Living Dead is so large, it could almost qualify as a genre on its own. Most people know Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, and maybe even Day of the Dead, but the series goes much, much deeper than that.
Trying to figure out how it all pieces together can be tricky, if not downright perplexing. Due to the complicated state of the rights to each film combined with a tendency for people to attempt to cash in on the franchise’s success, there are technically different timelines and sub-franchises within the series. That said, there’s only one true continuity that fits Romero’s vision. This guide helps solidify where each film, TV series, book, comic, and even video game stands. Perhaps more importantly: it also explains what is and isn’t canon in one of the best horror movie franchises ever crafted.
5 George A. Romero’s Original Living Dead Trilogy
Night of the Living Dead (1968)
Where it all started. Night of the Living Dead is both one of the most influential pieces of art ever created and a masterpiece in its own right. The film depicts the initial outbreak of the franchise’s central zombie plague.
Dawn of the Dead (1978)
Dawn of the Dead is a sequel to Night of the Living Dead. Despite being set in the ’70s (as opposed to the ’60s when Night of the Living Dead was made), the events canonically take place a matter of weeks after those seen in the previous film. This is because the franchise exists on a sliding timeline, similar to the pre-Daniel Craig James Bond movies or continuity on The Simpsons, whereby characters don’t really age and events in their past are retroactively updated relative to the entry currently being watched. Many consider it to be George A. Romero’s best zombie movie.
Day of the Dead (1985)
Day of the Dead is the third entry in the series. Once again featuring new characters, Day is set a matter of months after the events of Night of the Living Dead, despite comments from Daniel Kraus who posthumously completed Romero’s novel, The Living Dead, in 2020, and mistakenly claimed that Day of the Dead is set after Land of the Dead in an interview once.
4 The Second Trilogy Of Romero’s Living Dead Sequels
Land of the Dead (2005)
Following a resurgence in the popularity of the zombie genre, Land of the Dead relaunched the series after a 20-year hiatus. It’s the fourth film in the series and is set three years after the events of Night of the Living Dead, making it currently the final film in the series chronologically. Cementing franchise continuity against naysayers who previously believed each film to be standalone, Tom Savini reprises his role as Blades from Dawn of the Dead who appears for a brief cameo, now a zombie.
Diary of the Dead (2007)
Diary of the Dead is the fifth film in George A. Romero’s series. However, chronologically speaking, the events are set concurrently with Night of the Living Dead.
Survival of the Dead (2009)
The last of George A. Romero’s Dead movies, Survival of the Dead is unusual in that it focuses on a returning character from Diary of the Dead. The film opens on a scene from Diary in which we’re introduced to Sarge and other members of the National Guard who have gone AWOL. He is the protagonist for the rest of the film, meaning that the events are set shortly after Night of the Living Dead, with some overlap with Diary. Taking the action to an island off the US mainland, the film was strangely positioned as a western for people who hate movie westerns.
Twilight of the Dead (upcoming)
George A. Romero left behind several projects when he died, including a fully-produced, unreleased feature film. One project was the treatment for a seventh film in the Dead series set at the very end of the timeline, after Land of the Dead. The upcoming film Twilight of the Dead has been resurrected by his widow, Suzanne Romero, and is currently in post-production with a likely 2024 release.
3 Official Living Dead Spinoffs & Remakes
The Return of the Living Dead (1985)
Producer, John A. Russo, was George A. Romero’s filmmaking partner on Night of the Living Dead. The two amicably parted ways following its production, agreeing that they would make their own sequels independently of one another. Romero agreed to use “of the Dead” for the title of his sequels, with John A. Russo retaining “Of the Living Dead” for his.
The first of Russo’s efforts to capitalize on Night‘s success was a sequel novel he wrote titled The Return of the Living Dead, and the book was loosely adapted into a film in 1985. Taking a much more comedic approach, The Return of the Living Dead repositions Night of the Living Dead as being “based on real events,” with one of the contained zombies then breaking loose and starting the infection all over again. To date, The Return of the Living Dead has spawned four sequels of its own:
The Return of the Living Dead: Part II
(1988)The Return of the Living Dead III
(1993)Return of the Living Dead: Necropolis
(2005)Return of the Living Dead: Rave to the Grave
(2005).
They all exist within a new continuity established by The Return of the Living Dead, into which Night of the Living Dead sort of fits, but Romero’s sequels are ignored. A reboot of the classic zombie comedy is currently in the works.
Night of the Living Dead (1990)
Wanting to finally make some money from the film they’d created after unfortunately forgetting to include a copyright symbol in Night of the Living Dead‘s end credits and thus allowing it to fall immediately into the public domain, George A. Romero, John A. Russo, and Tom Savini decided to work together on an official remake of Night of the Living Dead with Romero writing the screenplay and Savini making his directorial debut. The film establishes a separate continuity from Romero’s other movies.
John A. Russo’s Other Films
In 1999, John A. Russo further attempted to take control of the copyright over Night of the Living Dead by producing a 30th Anniversary Edition of Night of the Living Dead. It featured the original film intercut with newly filmed material designed to flesh the film out further. This mostly consisted of new gore sequences showcasing zombies eating people incut with the old ones, and a series of scenes in which a Reverend explains the apocalypse as a punishment from God.
Notably, S. William Hinzman who portrayed the first zombie seen in Night of the Living Dead reprised the role for an unnecessary sequence revealing the character to be the corpse of an executed criminal. The fact that Night of the Living Dead: 30th Anniversary Edition missed the movie’s actual 30th anniversary by a year should tell people everything they need to know about its quality. The film explicitly sets up Children of the Living Dead (2001).
It is a straight-to-video movie produced by Russo, and starring Tom Savini in the lead role. Children of the Living Dead follows the new continuity established by Nightof the Living Dead: 30th Anniversary Edition and is unconnected to Romero’s other films. It currently holds 2.4/10 on IMDb.
Dawn of the Dead (2004)
One of the films responsible for relaunching the zombie genre in the early noughties was the official remake of Dawn of the Dead, written by James Gunn and directed by Zack Snyder. The horror movie remake establishes a new continuity, noticeably in which the zombies run. A sequel titled Army of the Dead was in development for years before eventually being reworked into the unrelated zombie movie released by Snyder in 2021.
Day of the Dead 2: Contagium (2005)
In 2003, Taurus Entertainment acquired the rights to Romero properties Day of the Dead and Creepshow, and set about exploiting name recognition to an almost admirable point. The first project was the utterly abysmal Day of the Dead 2: Contagium, positioning itself as a direct sequel to Day of the Dead. While it’s not canon as far as Romero and his series are concerned, Day of the Dead 2: Contagium does technically meet the legal definition of a sequel.
Technically it establishes its continuity and canon that goes Night of the Living Dead > Dawn of the Dead > Day of the Dead > Day of the Dead 2: Contagium. However, the film makes no actual effort to exist within the world of Romero’s films. As such, it is best viewed as a standalone given its numerous continuity issues.
Day of the Dead (2008)
Taurus Entertainment immediately followed Contagium (and Creepshow III) with a remake. The film shamelessly hired Ving Rhames, star of Zack Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead remake, to appear in it with the explicit intent of tricking audiences into thinking the film was a sequel to the Dawn remake. It isn’t.
Day of the Dead: Bloodline (2017)
After failed attempts to get a found-footage Day of the Dead 3 off the ground following the release of Romero’s found-footage Diary of the Dead, Taurus ultimately settled on just remaking Day of the Dead for the second time instead. They tried to make a 3D remake as early as 2010, but it took until 2017 for the film to be released (in 2D). Although given asubtitle, Day of the Dead: Bloodline isn’t a sequel to anything. In fact, as a remake, it’s arguably closer to the original film than the 2008 version.
Day of the Dead (2021)
Realizing they’d let five years pass without remaking Day of the Dead, Taurus set about producing a third remake of the film, this time as a SyFy television series. The series has probably the least to do with the original film of any of the remakes, following a group of characters during the first 24 hours of a zombie pandemic. The show was not renewed for a second season.
2 Unauthorized Living Dead Sequels & Remakes
The Italian Sequels
Italian horror legend, Dario Argento, worked with George A. Romero as a producer on the original Dawn of the Dead, retaining control over specifically the European cut of the film. His version was released as Zombi and, as was the norm in Italy at the time, a slew of unlicensed sequels followed. Italy’s particularly lax copyright laws meant that it was commonplace.
The most famous example is probably the 1966 film, Django, which spawned at least 38 unofficial sequels. Another legendary Italian horror filmmaker, Lucio Fulci, took it upon himself to direct Zombi 2, an unofficial 1979 sequel to the Italian cut of Dawn of the Dead, which at least attempted to tie itself into the continuity via bookend sequences supposed to explain how zombies came to America at the start of Dawn of the Dead.
Fulci followed the film with Zombi 3 in 1988, which didn’t even bother to follow the continuity set in Zombi 2. Numerous unrelated Italian horror movies have since been repackaged as Zombi sequels in foreign markets, with 1989’s After Death being released as Zombie 4: After Death, and 1987’s Killing Birds being marketed as Zombie 5: Killing Birds in the USA. At least 20 further horror films have been marketed as Zombi sequels across alternative markets.
Numerous Night of the Living Dead Sequels & Remakes
Due to the film’s lapsed copyright, it is perhaps the most exploited movie in cinema history. Once microbudget filmmaking became a reality with the advent of modern filming equipment, people realized that anyone could make their own Night of the Living Dead movie and potentially make money off the back of its success. Remakes include but aren’t limited to:
Night of the Living Dead 3D (2006)
Starring Sid Haig, this remake spawned its own sequel,
Night of the Living Dead 3D: Re-Animation
(2012),
starring Jeffrey Combs.Night of the Living Dead: Reanimated
(2009) A collaboration between numerous artists who recreated the original film in various animation styles set the original audio.Night of the Living Dead: Resurrection
(2012) An atrocious Welsh remake.Night of the Living 3D Dead
(2013) A second British remake in as many years, this time starring Gemma AtkinsonNight of the Living Dead
(2014) A remake that never found distribution following its premiere screening.Night of the Living Dead: Darkest Dawn
(2015) Originally announced as
Night of the Living Dead: Origins 3D
, it was an animated prequel featuring what can only be described as Playstation 2 graphics, inexplicably produced by Simon West, and, once again, starring Tony Todd in the role of Ben, reprising his role from the 1990 remake.
1 Living Dead In Other Media
Living Dead Books
Night of the Living Dead
(1974) John A. Russo’s novelization of the first film.Return of the Living Dead
(1977) John A. Russo’s sequel novel to
Night of the Living Dead
.Book of the Dead
(1989) An anthology of short stories from writers including Stephen King, supposedly set within Romero’s film universe. Although he didn’t authorize it, he did write its foreword, suggesting the book had his blessing.Still Dead: Book of the Dead 2
(1992) A sequel to
Book of the Dead
.Mondo Zombie
(2006) Originally intended to be
Book of the Dead 3
, the stories were ultimately published under an unrelated title.The Living Dead
(2020) A novel credited to George A. Romero and Daniel Kraus. It was started by Romero, but unfinished upon his death, when Romero’s estate hired Kraus to complete the project using his notes. It is the only book to serve as a fully canon extension of Romero’s film universe.
Living Dead Comics
The Death of Death
(2004-2005) A miniseries appearing in the first six issues of DC Comics’
Toe Tags
anthology series. It was written by George A. Romero, based on an unused screenplay for one of his
Dead
films, meaning that it can be considered canon, though its tone and content do make this questionable.Escape of the Living Dead
(2005) A sequel to
Night of the Living Dead
written by John A. Russo. Set in 1971, it intends to bridge the gap between
Night
and
Dawn of the Dead
, abandoning the series’ sliding timeline in the process. Tony Todd was attached to a film adaptation that is yet to materialize.Empire of the Dead
(2013) A Marvel series written by Romero. Unlike
Toe Tags
, it is explicitly non-canon, featuring vampires.Road of the Dead: Highway to Hell
(2019)
Road of the Dead
was a film project announced before Romero’s death, co-written by Romero and Matt Birman, and directed by Birman who was 2nd Unit Director on
Land
,
Diary,
and
Survival of the Dead
. Although the film is yet to materialize, a lead-in prequel comic with the subtitle
Highway to Hell
was released in 2019, constituting a canon part of Romero’s universe.The Rise (2021)
In an embarrassing blotch on Romero’s legacy, in 2017, George A. Romero’s son, George Cameron Romero, launched an IndieGoGo project to secure funding for
Origins
, a direct
Night of the Living Dead
prequel that was going to be set in the 1960s. Despite raising over $30,000 in funding, the film never materialized and Cameron hasn’t updated the project page since 2018. After changing its title to
Rise of the Living Dead
, and then just
The Rise
, the project found new life as a series published in
Heavy Metal
and then collected together as a graphic novel. The movie’s backers didn’t so much as receive a free copy of the comic. Despite being sold on the back of association with George A. Romero, he never commented on it, and it didn’t appear to have his blessing, making
The Rise
firmly non-canon.Cold Dead War
(2021) George C. Romero continued his relationship with
Heavy Metal
, publishing this second zombie series later the same year. Once again, the series is non-canon.
Living Dead Video Games
Land of the Dead: Road to Fiddler’s Green was a 2005 first-person shooter tie-in with Land of the Dead. It is a prequel to the film, taking place concurrently with Night of the Living Dead and following a farmer named Jack during the initial zombie outbreak. Though technically canon in the franchise, George A. Romero was not involved in its production.
