What started out as a little bonus mode in 2008’s Call of Duty: World at War has become a global phenomenon. Call of Duty‘s Zombies mode is a staple of the franchise, with complex lore, a sprawling multiverse, varied maps, and numerous now-iconic original characters behind it. Not to mention, more than a few celebrity guests have gotten in on the zombie-killing action.
While the likes of Tank Dempsey (Steve Blum), Dr. Edward Richtofen (Nolan North), and Samantha Maxis (Julie Nathanson) have carried the mode from game to game, several notable pop culture favorites have briefly come along for the ride. Malcolm McDowell, Jeff Goldblum, the late Ray Liotta, and more have featured in the mode, and that’s just in Treyarch’s titles. Sledgehammer Games’ Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare and Call of Duty: WWII boast celebrity guest stars of their own.
While every celebrity cameo in the Call of Duty Zombies lineage has been fun, some are just a bit more special and noteworthy than others. Here are the top five best the Treyarch franchise has offered up to date.
5. Helena Bonham-Carter as Madame Mirela
Call of Duty: Black Ops 4‘s Dead of the Night takes players to the manor of skilled archaeologist Alistair Rhodes (Charles Dennis), where all kinds of paranormal entities threaten the lives of those present. Alongside Gideon Jones (Kiefer Sutherland), Jonathan Warwick (Brian Blessed), and Godfrey (Charles Dance) is Christina Fowler, aka Madame Mirela, as portrayed in voice and likeness by Helena Bonham-Carter. She turns in a solid vocal performance here, and considering her entertainment track record, she was a perfect fit for the Zombies mode.
Bonham-Carter has made a career out of taking projects of the supernatural and macabre variety. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Corpse Bride, Alice in Wonderland, and more fill her filmography. She’s also among director Tim Burton’s most frequent collaborators, in addition to being his former romantic partner. Bonham-Carter took the role of Mirela seriously, too, telling CinemaBlend that she personally crafted Mirela’s accent and channeled Mrs. Lovett, her Sweeney Todd character, to get her Dead of the Night performance just right.
4. Ron Perlman as Floyd Campbell
Kicking off Call of Duty: Black Ops III‘s Zombies mode, Treyarch put its latest celebrity-loaded map at the forefront. Shadows of Evil takes place in the run-down, paranormal Morgue City, where seedy inhabitants do vile things to get ahead. One of these individuals is Floyd Campbell: a washed-up boxer who’s willing to kill if it means getting to the top of his profession. Ultimately, he pays the price for his underhanded tactics. Ron Perlman’s unmistakable face and rumbling voice couldn’t be more suitable for the grizzled journeyman fighter.
Much like Bonham-Carter, Perlman is no stranger to odd, paranormal fictional universes. He’s a mainstay in the works of director Guillermo del Toro, from Cronos to Hellboy, where strange is the name of the game. The surreal French fantasy flick The City of Lost Children, starring Perlman as carnival strongman One, also boasts a similar aesthetic to Shadows of Evil. All of this experience, coupled with the fact that Perlman told IGN he’d always wanted to play a boxer in some form, drove home the fact that no one could play Campbell quite like him.
3. Joe Pantoliano as Al “The Weasel” Arlington
One of, if not the absolute best Zombies map to date, Call of Duty: Black Ops II‘s Mob of the Dead features four mobsters attempting to escape Alcatraz Island via a shoddily-built plane. Not only are they unsuccessful, but they’re trapped in a time loop, forcing them to fend off endless waves of zombies, die, and repeat their failure over and over again for eternity. The mastermind of their initial escape plan is Al “The Weasel” Arlington, modeled after and voiced by Joe Pantoliano to utter perfection.
In a cast chock-full of crime genre legends, Pantoliano very much stands out as Mob of the Dead‘s MVP. The Sopranos, Matrix, and Bad Boys actor was a prime choice to bring out Weasel’s meek and insecure yet innovative and intelligent personality. It’s just too bad that when the character returns in Black Ops 4‘s Blood of the Dead, he only does so as a bird in spirit form, thus preventing Pantoliano from getting another shot at the role.
2. Danny Trejo as Himself
Call of the Dead from Call of Duty: Black Ops I is the first Call of Duty Zombies map to feature a celebrity cast, and it goes all-out. When their horror film set is overrun, Robert Englund, Sarah Michelle Gellar, and Michael Rooker have to fight off waves of zombies in the middle of Siberia. Danny Trejo joins them, signature machetes in hand, to slaughter the incoming undead. All four actors thrive with the material provided, but Trejo takes it to another level as only he can.
To say that the Machete and From Dusk Till Dawn actor brings enthusiasm and gusto to the project would be a massive understatement. Trejo put his all into his lines, bringing a bit of comedy as well as plenty of badassery to match his tattooed, weaponed-up character model. The actor told XboxViewTV all about his experience working on Call of the Dead back in 2011, and while he’s not much of a gamer himself, it’s abundantly clear that he had a ton of passion for the endeavor.
1. George A. Romero as Himself
Continuing on with Call of the Dead, it’s worth remembering who was directing the film that Trejo, Rooker, Englund, and Gellar were working on when they were ambushed by the undead. That person was none other than George A. Romero, who’s overpowered by zombies during the intro cutscene and turned into one himself. Throughout the game, he wanders the map with a stage light in hand and loads of one-liners. If you make Romero mad, he’ll fly into a rage, sprinting after you with his weapon of choice. All in all, there’s not a single soul more fitting to appear in a Call of Duty map than him.
Romero is single-handedly responsible for crafting the modern image of a zombie through revolutionary films like Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead. Even years after his death in 2017, he continues to inspire the horror genre and those working within it. Zombies simply wouldn’t exist without Romero, so it’s only right that the visionary director was included in what has become one of the mode’s most beloved maps.
For those unaware, Black Ops 4‘s Tag Der Toten, a Call of the Dead reimagining, features Romero’s signature glasses sitting on a table. This is both a fun Call of the Dead Easter egg and a tribute to the man who paved the way.
