Stories from the set

The production company bought 2,500 plastic skeletons, which the costume designers dressed in clothing and placed on the film set.

Work on the film began in 2009, when Zack Snyder wrote the screenplay, but he declined to become the director due to being busy with other projects. For a time, James Gunn was considered to direct, but in the end he turned down the offer. In 2011, it was announced that the film would be directed by Matthijs van Heijningen Jr., and that it would be released in the fall of 2013. In 2012, van Heijningen Jr. announced that he was leaving the project, and the project was shelved again until 2018.

Everything the actors touched and walked on was real. Everything else, including the roofs of buildings and the outlines of Las Vegas against the sky, was created using computer technology.

All scenes with her character Tig Notaro were filmed alone. The reason is that she had suffered from cancer, and the filming took place at the height of the coronavirus pandemic. Dave Bautista has never personally met Notaro; they have never even seen each other, although they act together in several scenes in the film. Notaro's image was simply inserted into these scenes using digital technology.

The zombie horse that Zeus rides through the ruins of Las Vegas was designed by Gabriel Bartalos. Justin Raleigh, who was in charge of makeup, said that many layers of makeup were applied to a real horse: a layer depicting bones and muscles, a layer depicting skin on top of it, and then sinews and makeup on the muzzle were added in small pieces.

The zombies wore different types of contact lenses. At the beginning of a person's transformation into a zombie, the contact lenses made it look as if blood was oozing from the eyes, then the eyes became increasingly red and there was more and more blood. At the end, the lenses were completely white. All the contact lenses—over 60 sets—were created by Kristina Patterson.

The actors playing zombies had to go through basic training, mainly to learn how to handle weapons. One of them, Matthias Schweighöfer, already had the relevant training, so he had to make an effort to look more clumsy and less prepared.

The role of the helicopter pilot was played by Chris D'Elia, but the actor was accused of sexual harassment. It was impossible to gather all the actors for reshoots, so in post-production he was replaced by the actress Tig Notaro.

During the filming of the head-on car collision at the beginning of the movie, a camera was deliberately destroyed to realistically show the crash from the passengers' point of view.

The filming of the movie's opening scene, where the military encounters an alpha zombie, proved to be the most grueling and took five weeks, as Zack Snyder insisted that this scene take place at dusk.