'Zona Merah: Dead City' Teaser Moves Indonesia's Zombie Outbreak Into the City

Screenplay Films released the first teaser for "Zona Merah: Dead City" on Friday, ahead of a Jan. 14, 2027, theatrical release in Indonesia. The company bills the feature as the largest zombie production the country has ever mounted.

That's a verifiable-sounding claim with a verifiable pedigree behind it. The source series, a Vidio (Indonesia's leading streaming platform) original, has drawn more than 34 million views. Now the franchise wants cinemas.

"As one of the most ambitious projects we've ever undertaken, we want to deliver an extraordinary cinematic experience for everyone, not just fans of the 'Zona Merah' series," Screenplay Films producer Wicky V. Olindo said.

What does the teaser show?

Scale, mostly. The series kept its undead confined to countryside villages and quarantine sites. The film moves the outbreak onto city streets and into malls, with additional action staged at an airport. If the show was a village scare, the movie wants to be a metropolitan collapse.

That geographic escalation is the whole sales pitch. The infection gets bigger, and so does the set design.

Who is making it?

Sidharta Tata returns to direct, sharing duties with co-director Fajar Martha Santosa. Tata has been blunt about the production's appetite.

"From day one, we knew we had to go all out for 'Zona Merah: Dead City.' We filmed across three cities in Indonesia, worked with hundreds of extras, and built incredible set pieces," Tata said.

Three cities and hundreds of extras. For Indonesian genre cinema, that's the language of ambition spoken in units anyone can count.

Who is in it?

The cast mixes franchise veterans with newcomers:

• Returning from the series: Aghni Haque, Andri Mashadi, Devano, Maria Theodore and Lukman Sardi
• New to the franchise: Bryan Domani, Shindy Huang, Myesha Lin, Derby Romero and Luna Maya

Maya also serves as executive producer. Barunson E&A, the South Korean sales and production company, handles international sales — a signal that Screenplay Films expects the film to travel beyond Indonesian screens.

The teaser arrives two years before release, which tells you what kind of campaign this is: long, loud and aimed at a fan base of 34 million already streaming the story. Whether city streets prove roomy enough for that audience's expectations, we'll find out in January 2027.