Night of the Living Dead (film series)

After Night of the Living Dead's initial success, the two creators split in disagreement regarding where the series should head,[1] and since the film was in the public domain,[2] each were able to do what they liked with the continuity of their projects. Romero went on to direct five additional Dead films, while Russo branched into literary territory, writing Return of the Living Dead, which was later loosely adapted into a film of the same name and would have its own franchise, and Escape of the Living Dead.

Labeled "Trilogy of the Dead" until Land of the Dead, each film is laden with social commentary on topics ranging from racism to consumerism. The films are not produced as direct follow-ups from one another and their only continuation is the theme of the epidemic of the living dead. This situation advances with each film, showing the world in a worsening state, but each film is independent of its predecessor. This is exemplified by the fact that each movie is set within the era it is filmed, with Land of the Dead being set in modern times with current (as of 2005) technology such as game consoles, flatscreen televisions, and cell phones. The fifth film does not continue the depiction of progress, but shows events at the very beginning of a zombie outbreak, similar to the first film. The films portray how different people react to the same phenomenon, ranging from citizens to police to army officials and to citizens again. Each takes place in a world worsened since its previous appearance, the number of zombies ever increasing and the living perpetually endangered, but with each entry being a standalone film that is not directly continuing global events from the previous.

Romero does not consider any of his Dead films sequels since none of the major characters or story continue from one film to the next. The two exceptions are Tom Savini's character of Blades who becomes a zombie in Dawn of the Dead who would be seen again years later in Land of the Dead and the military officer (Alan van Sprang) who robs the main characters in Diary of the Dead and goes on to become a protagonist in Survival of the Dead.

• Night of the Living Dead, the 1990 remake of the original film penned by Romero and directed by Dawn of the Dead and Day of the Dead effects artist Tom Savini.
• Dawn of the Dead, the 2004 remake of the 1978 original, penned by James Gunn and directed by Zack Snyder.
• Toe Tags Featuring George Romero (DC Comics), the 2004 comic book series by Romero about college workers investigating the cause of the zombie pandemic, adapted from one of his unused screenplays.[6][7]
• Empire of the Dead (Marvel Comics), the 2013 comic book series written by Romero featuring the living dead and vampires in New York City.
• Road of the Dead: Highway to Hell (IDW Publishing), the 2019 comic book prequel to the film Road of the Dead, written by Jonathan Maberry.[8]
• The Living Dead (Tor Books), the 2020 epic novel co-written by Romero and finished posthumously by Daniel Kraus, spanning 15 years of the zombie outbreak.[9][10] Kraus used various notes and manuscripts from Romero to finish the project, adding that "The movies came out in a completely random order as far as timeline. If you ignore the decade shifts, as he did...the timeline is, and I have this memorized now: Night of the Living Dead, Diary of the Dead, Survival of the Dead, Dawn of the Dead, Land of the Dead, and Day of the Dead. He'd only gone five years into the future. There's a lot of untrod ground that is not handled cinematically"; "When the book goes fifteen years into the future, the humans are down to a tiny little nub of survivors — the zombies start dying out, rotting and returning to the earth. It's grim, but a hopeful chance to rebuild society in a better way."[11][12]
• The Rise (Heavy Metal), the prequel comic to Night of the Living Dead written by Romero's son G. Cameron Romero, depicting the origin story of the zombie outbreak. The project was originally intended to be a film, which started as an Indiegogo funding campaign in 2014 for Night of the Living Dead: Origins and later renamed Rise of the Living Dead. It is set at the height of the Cold War era, depicting a military scientist searching for a way to sustain human life in the event of a nuclear holocaust. Romero eventually scrapped the project and converted it into a comic book titled The Rise, to avoid potential studio interference and trademarking disputes. Chapters are published individually in issues of Heavy Metal magazine, and later collected into a single graphic novel.[13][14][15][16][17][18][19] The first chapter was published in Heavy Metal #302 on November 20, 2020.[20]

• Living Dead
• Zombie
• A Night of the Undead

• Night of the Living Dead (1968) at IMDb
• Download Night of the Living Dead  — both HD (Blu-ray) and standard version available legally for free as the film is in the public domain
• Dawn of the Dead (1978) at IMDb
• Day of the Dead (1985) at IMDb
• Land of the Dead (2005) at IMDb
• Diary of the Dead (2007) at IMDb
• Survival of the Dead (2009) at IMDb