Woody Harrelson, Emma Stone, Jesse Eisenberg and Abigail Breslin are together again in this exclusive Zombieland 2 image

Sequels to beloved comedies are often disappointing – just look at Anchorman 2 and Zoolander 2. Yet, the director of Zombieland 2: Double Tap is surprisingly confident about the second part.

“So many sequels don’t live up to the original, but I feel very proud and confident of the fact that we’ve made something that can stand shoulder to shoulder with the original film,” Fleischer tells our sister publication Total Film magazine. “Nobody was interested in making this movie if we didn’t feel like we could compete with the first one, to be at least as good, if not better. That was the bar we set.” 

Double Tap sees Woody Harrelson, Emma Stone, Jesse Eisenberg and Abigail Breslin all return as their characters from the original film, named Tallahassee, Columbus, Wichita and Little Rock. Ten years on, are still a dysfunctional makeshift family unit, living in a world that’s starting to show the wear-and-tear of the end of civilisation. An exclusive image of the gang can be seen above, courtesy of Total Film.

Speaking about working on a script to the sequel, Fleischer says: "It took a while to get the right script – a draft that got everyone really excited to return. And then it was just a matter of finding a time where all of our schedules aligned.” Double Tap, he teases, could feature a treat to rival Bill Murray’s movie-stealing Zombieland cameo. “I share that love of Bill Murray in the first one,” says the director. “I don’t know how you could ever top that, but if someone were to stay to the finish of the film, perhaps they might see something a little special…” 

Also in this month's Total Film magazine, Joaquin Phoenix and Todd Phillips speak at length about Joker, with Phillips also touching on how the movie has been influences by The Hangover trilogy and whether there could be a sequel. The new issue reaches store shelves on August 23.

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