The Only One That Really Mattered: A Rise of the Dead Short Film

The Only One That Really Mattered is a short film set in the Rise of the Dead Universe it is the first in a planned slate of spinoff short films set in the same universe as the main trilogy, instead focussed on smaller-scale standalone stories. It is the fourth installment to be released in the series, although it is the third chronologically as it Is set before the events of The Rise of the Dead. It is set for release in April 2020, about seven years after the franchise began production. It is directed by Jack Hillebrecht.

Production
During 2013-2014, in which Ryan Woods was directly involved in the franchise, an ambitious slate of films set the Rise of the Dead Universe were planned after the trilogy wrapped up. One concept for spinoffs was a new series of the adventures of new characters removed from the narrative of the original trio of protagonists. 2019's The Rise of the Dead was marketed as the end of the franchise that began in 2013 as well as a reboot of the property. Due to the success and positive reception to that film as well as a plethora of new ideas based around this old concept of Rise of the Dead spinoffs, a standalone short was greenlit around January-February 2020. A script was written by Hillebrecht for the first of these shorts during that time, and a near complete rewrite happened on February 21, 2020. Production commenced on February 28, 2020 and concluded on March 14, 2020. The official trailer, which was also a general announcement for the return of the saga, launched the next day on February 29, featuring footage of Rothstein, Maute, Umrani, and White, but none of the main protagonists.

Cast

 * Kayla DeAngelis as Kayla
 * Graham Hamilton as Graham
 * Julia Rothstein
 * Ruby Maute
 * Safiya Umrani
 * Jasmine White

Trivia

 * The film is set in both both 2013 in the weeks leading up to the apocalypse and in September 2014, one year after the apocalypse began.