Meg Donnelly And Milo Manheim Talk ‘Zombies 4’ And Beyond

In the earlier Zombies installments, fans of the hit Disney franchise got to behold zombies, werewolves, and aliens in all their spooky, sci-fi glory paired with incomparable music and dance numbers. Incorporating vampires and their rivals, the “Daywalkers”, into the mix for Zombies 4: Dawn of the Vampires felt like a natural progression.

The fourth film, which premieres July 10 on the Disney Channel and the next day on Disney+, welcomes in singer and actress Freya Skye as the Daywalker “Nova” and Villains of Valley View star Malachi Barton as “Victor” the vampire. The pair gave memorable performances as their characters found themselves in a Romeo and Juliet tale with a vampire twist.

According to the young actors, they were able to establish chemistry before arriving on set in New Zealand to shoot the movie.

“We had group FaceTimes and stuff like that before we started and I feel like the connection literally started from the beginning,” Barton said. “It was from this room that we’re in right now is when I first met Freya and where we first met each other and I knew she was Nova and I hope she knew I was Victor, but we started a connection on FaceTime. I remember DMing Freya. Did I DM you?

“No, yeah, I DMed Freya and then I DMed MK (Mekonnen Knife) and all the whole other cast. And I was like, ‘Hey guys, we’re making a movie together.’ And then we made a group chat, you know, started the connection. And then it felt like we were already best friends by the time we got to New Zealand.”

“I mean there wasn’t a ton of time, I guess, in between kind of finding out we were all doing the movie together and being on set,” Skye recalled. “So I feel like we’re really lucky that it all just came so naturally. And I feel like we very naturally built a friendship and built that chemistry, which resonated on screen too. So yeah, it all came really naturally.”

As the franchise’s storyline progresses in part 4, Zombies stars Meg Donnelly and Milo Manheim, whose powerhouse performances as “Addison” and “Zed” made them the undeniable heart and soul of the franchise in the first three movies, take on a secondary role in the fourth installment.

Donnelly and Manheim served as executive producers for the first time on Dawn of the Vampires. It seems their involvement with the franchise moving forward may be more behind the camera, making decisions that serve the fans and the young onscreen performers.

“I don’t really know how I’m thinking about it other than we’re welcoming this new family in, and they’re definitely taking on a role that we have been in for the whole Zombies franchise,” Manheim said after I asked if this would be it for him and Donnelly with the franchise. “But, you know, I know we’re definitely going to be involved with further Zombies movies, at least behind the camera.

“We’ll see if it makes sense for the story, for us to be back or not. But I could not be happier that we’re passing the torch to this group of kids.

“They’re incredible and they embody everything Zombies stands for. So I wish I could give you a more concrete answer, but the answer is the universe will let us know.”

Meg echoed Milo’s thoughts on the duo’s Zombies future.

“I think if, hopefully, and when there’s another Zombies movie, I think, regardless of if we’re in it or not, I think executive producing this time around was so fulfilling. And I would love to even step into that more on the next one, if they would have us,” she added.

“So I think that really excites me about (the future) is being even more involved than we were. And we were super involved in Zombies 4. But yeah, I think kind of the same thing. Let the universe decide.”

“We spent so much time just with the producers on Zombies 4, the only time we weren’t with them was when we were in costume and character shooting these things,” Manheim said. “But I think if we were to do another one and be less a part of it in front of the camera, we would just be able to have more time figuring out universe building, world building, if you will.”

Being co-producers on Zombies 3 opened the two actors up to a new level of involvement and input on a project.

“I think we actually had so much say and our changes really made it in the movie, which was really cool,” Donnelly stated. “And then now being executive producers, I feel like we were now involved in the casting decision and the wardrobe and some of the dance numbers, like how they’re filmed and even like order of scene filming.

“We really got to be involved even more so and so it was really an honor because we’ve been with this (franchise) for almost 10 years now and I think just being able to be behind the scenes like we always are talking about creative ideas, but to actually do them was just really cool. And it’s a very unique position that is very rare. So I’m really grateful that we are one of the rarities in that sense.”

A decade ago, Meg and Milo were just two hopefuls among a plethora of young performers hoping to get a shot at starring in a new Disney project.

“Our audition process was wild,” Donnelly recalled. “We had a lot of individual auditions where we just auditioned alone. And then we had chemistry reads where there was a bunch of boys going out for Zed, a bunch of girls going out for Addison, and we were all mix matching and reading the scenes, and even singing together.

“And they just do that to find who has the best chemistry, what looks the best on screen. We weren’t actually paired up with each other at first. But we were talking a lot, even though we should have been talking to the other people we were paired up with. And we ended up reading together and it kind of worked from there. And we did an impromptu duet to Love Is an Open Door (from Frozen).”

“We did, they wanted us to sing together. So we were like, give us like five minutes. And then we went outside and we figured out Love is an Open Door and then we went in there,” Manheim remembered.

After the gauntlet of an audition for the first film, Meg and Milo have become household names for their young fans. They’ve also succeeding in inspiring upcoming generations of performers.

So what advice do they have?

“I would say, I mean, it sounds kind of cliche, but just bear with me. Do the things that you love to do. I mean, this goes within our industry and outside of it,” Manheim said.

“I think it’s very easy for us to try to do the things that we feel are expected of us. You know, like your family does this thing, so you should do that thing, too. I think really find what you love, what excites you and then you’ll be a lot better at that thing because you’ll be super interested in it.

You’re very passionate about it, so you take that extra step to learn a little bit about it. So I’d say just seriously follow your passion follow anything that excites you.”

“And stay in theater!” Donnelly added.