‘GOLD’ Takes A Darker Turn with ‘Night of the Zombie King’

David Nett is heading to the dark side. The creator of Streamys-nominated series GOLD has released the trailer for Night of the Zombie King, the first in a series of “companion adventure” spin-offs that explores the world of GOLD through the character of Jaz, leader of the Dangerous Gamers (from Episode 4).

NOTZK “is a funny and touching The Big Chill story for citizens of the geekily wonderful world of tabletop role playing games,” series creator David Nett told Tubefilter. The six-episode drama revolves around a reunion game during which old friends must address unfinished business left over from high school, and learn that “while they may no longer be the people they were when last the hefted their d20s together, they can still be friends, and work together to defeat the ancient evil of the Zombie King.”

Now deep in post-production, NOTZK, began as a way of appeasing fans while preparing for the massive undertaking of GOLD Season 2, which will boast over thirty characters, a dozen locations, two weeks of shooting, and some other “pretty big stuff” as Nett explains. NOTZK was created with minimal cost and production time in mind, while incorporating requests from fans, including—as you’ll see above—more time at the gaming table.

A departure from the comedy of GOLD, Night Of The Zombie King will experiment with a darker tone—something new in the geek web series space. “In the geek/gamer-targeted market, there aren’t a lot of dramas. We’re hoping that NOTZK can be among the first dramatic successes in that space.” says Nett. “We take gamers and their world very seriously, and think that there’s no reason that tabletop gaming, especially in this sort of ‘you can’t go home again’ context, should be any less a serious story catalyst than, say, sports or romantic relationships or music. Hopefully it works, and resonates with our audience. We think it will.”

Night of the Zombie King stars James Ellis Lane (Days of Our Lives) as Jaz, Jonathan Nail (Mad Men, Solo) as Martin, Brian Majestic as Brian, Stephanie Thorpe (After Judgement, The Temp Life, HTSAAR) as Danny and Maxwell Glick (Life, lonelygirl15) as Hicks.