Celebs Encountering the Walking Dead in Upcoming Zombie Movies

"The Walking Dead" has turned its cast of actors and actresses playing a group of zombie apocalypse survivors into bona fide stars, and it's safe to say that actress Danai Gurira is going to gain quite the fan following after being cast as sword-wielding badass Michonne for season 3.

It's going to be really hard for anyone living in a zombie-filled world to top her character - this is a woman who leads around two jawless, armless zombies on chains to keep the undead away from her, after all. However, plenty of well-known actors and actresses are probably hoping that the popularity of "The Walking Dead" will translate into success for their zombie movies. Here's a look at which celebs will be starring alongside the undead in the future:

Milla Jovovich

Michonne's undead-destroying predecessor Alice returns to her Wonderland of the walking dead in "Resident Evil: Retribution." In the fifth film in this futuristic sci-fi franchise, Alice hunts down the group responsible for the zombie outbreak from Tokyo to the U.S. to Moscow, making some shocking revelations along the way. Look for it in theaters on September 14, 2012.

Brad Pitt

Brad's zombie movie seems to be suffering from the same problem as "The Walking Dead" - fans of the "World War Z" book are already complaining about how different the movie will be. The book is set up as a U.N. worker's account of a decade-long zombie war after it's over, while a press release makes the movie sound like a typical zombie flick that starts at the beginning of a zombie outbreak. Plus Pitt's character is trying to stop the zombie pandemic in the movie rather than document it. But while undead fans might not get a history lesson on the world's zombie infection, the success of "The Walking Dead" is still proof that there's hope for this movie. It hits theaters on June 21, 2013.

Ryan Reynolds

At least there's plenty of eye candy in upcoming zombie movies. In "R.I.P.D.," Ryan will play a zombie police officer who is nothing like the undead version of Shane from "The Walking Dead" - he's actually capable of hunting down the man who murdered him. After his character is killed, he's resurrected to work for the R.I.P.D. (Rest in Peace) department, with Jeff Bridges starring as his walking dead partner, an old gunslinger from the Wild West. Mary Louise-Parker plays the boss lady responsible for making sure that the guys hunt down spirits not ready to depart from this world. So it's like "Ghostbusters" with zombies and Rooster Cogburn (in other words, one of 2013's must-see movies).

Nicholas Hoult

This "Skins" star is dating Jennifer Lawrence, whose movie "The Hunger Games" is garnering a lot of comparisons to "Twilight," and he's also starring in a film that will probably also get compared to the vampire love story. When his zombified character in "Warm Bodies" rescues a girl (Theresa Palmer) from an attack, they begin a very unlikely romance. It will certainly be interesting to see how a gal can fall for a guy who might be rotting inside and if the Twihards will fall just as hard for Hoult as they have Robert Pattinson when this movie hits theaters on February 1, 2013.

Anna Kendrick

Speaking of "Twilight," this star from the films will voice a character in the fun-looking animated flick "ParaNorman." Kodi Smit-McPhee, who starred in the vampire movie "Let Me In," voices a boy named Norman whose ability to talk to ghosts and zombies could help save his town from a centuries-old curse. Casey Affleck and John Goodman also voice characters in this 3D flick that hits theaters on August 16.

So while the second season of "The Walking Dead" is over, the undead genre certainly isn't dead. So what are you looking forward to more - the show's third season or one of these movies?

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