Army of the Dead's Nora Arnezeder Reveals Her Character's Secret Backstory

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Army of the Dead's Nora Arnezeder revealed her character's secret backstory. As reviews roll in for Army of the Dead, the hype for Zack Snyder’s upcoming return to the zombie realm is only increasing. Currently sitting in the 70% range on the Tomatometer, early reviews are praising Army of the Dead as an ambitious amalgam of heist and horror action, while some critics claim the film does neither very well. Snyder’s zombie flick will debut in about 600 theaters on May 14 before streaming on Netflix the following week, May 21.

Army of the Dead finds a short-order cook, Scott Ward (Dave Bautista), who has been tasked with rounding up a team and retrieving $200 million from a Las Vegas casino's vault. One important caveat is that Vegas is the epicenter of a zombie outbreak and the government is preparing to nuke the city within 32 hours. Bautista’s heist crew, dubbed the Las Vengeance team, is a ragtag bunch, yet each member has their specialty: Cruz (Ana de la Reguarea) as a mechanic, Vanderohe (Omari Hardwick) as a zombie killer, Dieter (Matthias Schweighöfer) as a safecracker, Peters (Tig Notaro) as a helicopter pilot, and Lily (Nora Arnezeder) as “The Coyote,” who is known for sneaking people into the city.

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The film is expected to delve into many of these characters' backstories, while some will be left for the prequels. Arnezeder said previously, in her mind, Lily used to work at the casino the Las Vengeance crew is operating in. But now, in an interview with Screen Rant, Arnezeder is revealing more of the secret backstory she made up for her character:

That's something that you do as an actor: you create a background character. I can tell you my little secrets if you want. She's doing everything for her daughter. She has a daughter. Yeah, it's a big revelation.

Arnezeder also spoke about the process of creating a layered character, which requires one to come up with a backstory that explores their motivations:

In order to build a strong character, I always look at the big picture and the bigger objective. I think doing it for the money is not as strong, but doing it for someone that's so dear to your heart brings so many layers to the character. It makes it deep.

While the animated prequel series will chronicle the origin story of Scott Ward and other members of the Las Vengeance crew, including his daughter Kate (Ella Purnell) and Cruz, it is unclear if Lily’s backstory will be explored. It is also unclear if any creatives or executives are even aware of Lily’s secret backstory, or if this is just something Arnezeder invented to help inform her performance.

With Army of the Dead featuring such a large cast of characters, it would be nearly impossible to explore everyone’s backstory in the film’s 2 hour 28-minute runtime, which is largely what necessitated the prequel series. If Lily was not given a specific backstory, it is nice to see Arnezeder taking the initiative and improvising one for her Army of the Dead character.