The Conversation (0)
Greg Evans
May 24, 2021
Netflix released their latest big blockbuster movie last Friday, Army of the Dead – a zombie horror movie by director Zack Snyder – but a cameo proved to be far scarier than any of the gore of frights in the film.
Warning: This article does contain spoilers for Army of the Dead.
Around the 17 minutes into the movie, Donald Trump’s former press secretary Sean Spicer makes an unexpected cameo in the movie, appearing in a debate on a news show with Democratic political strategist Donna Brazile where they discuss the zombie outbreak that has taken over Las Vegas in the film.
Spicer’s brief appearance last for just a few seconds but he does have a few lines of dialogue. It is clear he is playing himself as Brazile refers to him by name.
Although Spicer doesn’t say anything remotely controversial or noteworthy in this small scene, the mere memory of him and his time serving Trump conjured up bad memories for many viewers who complained that his presence spoiled the film.
Spicer, who worked for the Trump administration between January and July of 2017, quickly stirred controversy with a series of outrageous press conferences that mostly consisted of him telling blatant lies on behalf of the president. The most notorious of these being was him claiming the crowd size for Trump’s inauguration was the biggest ever when it very clearly wasn’t.
Despite the controversy surrounding him, Spicer has made an effort to improve his public image since leaving the White House. In 2019 he appeared on Dancing With the Stars. Before that, he had also made a surprise appearance at the 2017 Emmy’s which drew a mixed response from celebrities.
That being said, Snyder has a habit of featuring real-life figures from the news world in his films. 2016’s Batman v Superman features a cameo from CNN newsreader Anderson Cooper. That film also featured an appearance from Patrick Leahy, who is the current Senate president and a Batman superfan.