Here's when Army of Thieves takes place in relation to Army of the Dead. After Spartans and superheroes, Zack Snyder returned to zombies in 2021, dropping Army of the Dead on Netflix to much acclaim. Set in a Las Vegas brimming with undead after a mysterious Area 51-related outbreak, Army of the Dead has enjoyed significant success on Netflix, cracking the platform's top 10 most-watched movies. Even before Army of the Dead scored big (and especially now that it has), Snyder and Netflix had big plans for the franchise, with spinoffs and sequels galore.
The first of these is Army of Thieves, which shifts the focus onto Matthias Schweighöfer's Army of the Dead safe-cracker, Ludwig Dieter. Directed by Schweighöfer also, Army of Thieves sees Ludwig joined by Gwendoline (Nathalie Emmanuel) and a range of other international talents in a story that examines the safe-cracker's earlier heist escapades. Rather than continuing on from Army of the Dead's ending, Army of Thieves inevitably serves as a prequel set prior to Ludwig's fateful recruitment into Scott Ward's Vegas team. But while audiences know which order the movies sit chronologically, where does Army of Thieves actually sit on Zack Snyder's ever-expanding zombie timeline?
Army of the Dead's opening sequence charts the beginning of the zombie outbreak, when Zeus escapes his military transport from Area 51 and begins infecting Las Vegas revelers with reckless abandon. The intro's credits then roll over a Richard Cheese-sponsored montage that covers the ensuing battle, where the likes of Ward fought to contain the undead hordes within Vegas, and a wall was erected around the iconic tourist town. Beginning with Bly Tanaka visiting Ward at his diner, the remainder of Army of the Dead takes place 6 years later. Army of Thieves happens more or less around the same time as Army of the Dead's opening sequence, right at the start of the outbreak, and 6 years before Dieter's Vegas adventure.
Army of Thieves makes reference to the zombie crisis unfolding in Las Vegas several times, with Dieter watching news coverage of reporters unsuccessfully venturing into the city. He also has visions of being pursued by zombies, foreshadowing his eventual fate in Army of the Dead. Part of the heist crew's motivation is that the distraction provided by the events in America will allow them to carry out their scheme largely unnoticed. Army of Thieves only provides a brief glimpse of how society at large has reacted to the zombie outbreak, but it is evidently a topic of public fascination.
The prequel also explains why Dieter is eager to take on the dangerous mission in Army of the Dead, even taking a small share of the money. Army of Thieves features a series of safes named and patterned after Wagner's operatic Ring Cycle. Dieter cracks three of the four safes in Army of Thieves, but the accomplishment is still incomplete until he learns that the fourth safe, Gotterdamerung, is located in the basement of the casino Scott Ward's team is targeting. The job is thus Dieter's only chance to put his skills to the ultimate test.
Army of Thieves concludes with the scene from Army of the Dead where Scott recruits Dieter, but titles only state that it is "some time later" than the heists in Europe. It has evidently been enough time for Dieter to move to America and establish his own lockpicking business. The closing scene is also subtly re-shot, giving credence to fan theories about an Army of the Dead time loop. During Army of Thieves, the zombie outbreak is not breaking news, but still evidently attracting a lot of public interest. The events of Army of Thieves take place in a fairly short amount of time, with the crew rushing to crack the safes before they are destroyed. Based on these clues, it seems likely that Army of Thieves takes place approximately five years before Army of the Dead, although the timeline is intentionally kept loose and vague.
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