By Zach Johnson
We’re not in a Seabrook anymore, Shrimpy…
Just as a mysterious galactic moonstone once crashed into Seabrook, creating aliens, werewolves, and zombies, legend has it that another moonstone crashed into Mount Rayburn, creating two monsters, Daywalkers and Vampires, in two separate worlds. In the Disney Channel Original Movie ZOMBIES 4: Dawn of the Vampires, a summer road trip takes an unexpected detour when zombie football player Zed (Milo Manheim) and alien cheerleader Addison (Meg Donnelly) encounter the two opposing supernatural factions.
Well, not everyone is in opposition. Victor (Malachi Barton), a Vampire who lives in Shadyside and can harness the power of the wind, and Nova (Freya Skye), a Daywalker who lives in Sunnyside and can harness the power of the sun, find themselves mysteriously drawn together. With a little nudging from Zed and Addison—who also overcame their differences, despite the odds—Victor and Nova may be the key to uniting their groups.
“ZOMBIES 4 really expands upon the message of learning to embrace each other’s differences in everything,” Skye tells D23. “I feel that’s something really powerful, meaningful, and relevant. But there’s also a strong message about leadership and what it means to be a good leader. Something that Nova explores a lot in the movie is the idea of either leading the way her father expects her to lead—the way that she’s always been taught is the ‘correct’ way—or by doing what she thinks is right and following her heart.”
Similarly, Barton says, Victor wants to burst out of his “Shadyside bubble.”
“They learn a lot from each other,” Barton continues. “They learn to feel comfortable with who they are and to be a little bit more vulnerable. For Victor’s entire life, he’s been told one thing: stay as far away from the Daywalkers as possible. Nova’s been told the exact opposite. So, when people like Victor and Nova get together, it’s like a breath of fresh air.”
Unlike their characters, Barton and Skye hit it off immediately—thanks, in large part, to the example set by Manheim and Donnelly. “They were so helpful,” Skye said. “We were lucky to be surrounded by so many great people, and it’s easy to act with amazing actors.”
Barton adds, “Coming into such a big and such a beloved franchise can be a little intimidating, but it helped knowing that Meg, Milo, and the whole cast are normal people. This is their baby, and they were so open and so welcoming when we joined. They really understood, because they were the same age when they filmed ZOMBIES as we were filming ZOMBIES 4. It was cool to be able to have them there and mentor us through this.”