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This week's Nintendo Direct saw the reveal of Plants vs. Zombies: Replanted, an upcoming remake of the classic zombie-blasting arcade strategy game, co-developed by PopCap Games and The Lost Pixels. It was a nice surprise for fans of the series, which has since sprawled across multiple genres under publisher EA, which acquired PvZ and Bejeweled studio PopCap over a decade ago, but a significantly less nice surprise for original Plants vs. Zombies artist Rich Werner, who says he wasn't informed of the remake's existence or asked to work on it.
"Just saw the post about PVZ reboot," Werner said in a tweet. "It's cool, but wish someone would at least contact me. Kinda sux. I'd be down to help with it... whatever, I guess. Par for the course."
Plants vs. Zombies background artist Enrique Corts replied to Werner's post with similar sentiments. "Yeah, I was the background artist for the original PvZ too and it felt super weird seeing all my work like redone in HD and of course I had nothing to do with it," he wrote. "Would've been happy to do those reworks myself."
Werner suggested it would "have been cool for them to try getting everyone together for additional content." Corts agreed "it would have been awesome to go back and do some new PvZ content with you guys for this remake. It would've made total sense and fans would probably enjoy that, but eh, I guess."
One fan pointed out that, on the Replanted Steam page, EA says the remake features "a new Art and Concept Library, featuring never-before-seen pre-production sketches and game history." Werner appears equally surprised by this, saying "I have no idea" where they got this art from, and "that is wild."
"No one seems to want me to be a part of it sadly," Werner said in response to another fan who encouraged him to reach out.
EA's exclusion of the original artists has been criticized, to say the least. The Binding of Isaac mastermind Edmund McMillen shared Werner's tweet with a simple, telling, "Dude..."
I've reached out to EA for comment on its decision here.
Here's how EA described Replanted, which packs in more levels and modes as well as local co-op, on Steam: "After years in Crazy Dave’s attic, the original battle between Plants and Zombies is back — bigger, brighter, and crazier than ever before! Experience the game that started it all, now remastered with upscaled HD graphics and packed with new secrets to uncover."
Plants vs. Zombies: Replanted is coming to PC, Xbox, PlayStation, and Switch and Switch 2 on October 23, 2025.
Everything announced at the Nintendo Direct Partner Showcase July 2025.
