'Zombieland 2' Post-Credits Scene: How They Got Bill Murray to Return

Before Zombieland: Double Tap was released, there were some rumors that Bill Murray would be back, especially after he briefly appeared in a trailer, but the makers of the film made fans wait right until the end for the Ghostbusters actor to return.

Murray came back for a post-credits flashback scene that featured a zombie outbreak take place at a press junket for a fictional film named Garfield 3: Flabby Tabby.

The idea for the post-credits scene, which, among other moments, saw Murray hit the real Al Roker with a tea tray after he became a zombie, came from an ad-lib Murray made in the first movie.

In 2009's Zombieland, as Murray is dying and is asked if he had any regrets, the comedy legend says, "Garfield." "People always ask us whether we write these jokes where actors make fun of their previous projects like Ryan Reynolds does with Green Lantern [in Deadpool 2] and Bill Murray did with Garfield," Zombieland 2 writer Rhett Reese told the Los Angeles Times. "The answer is we would never have the guts to do that. Those jokes come from the actors themselves and then we just riff off that."

About midway through the new sequel, Nevada (played by Rosario Dawson) tells the rest of the characters that she will kill whoever it was that killed Bill Murray thinking he was a zombie, which gave the writers an idea.

Co-writer Paul Wernick told the Los Angeles Times in the same piece: "We thought, 'How fun would it be to call back the line from the first movie where Little Rock asks him what his greatest regret is and he says, 'Garfield?'"

They then wrote a scene they sent to Murray. Speaking to GameSpot, Reese said: "So without knowing [whether Murray would be into it], we wrote it and sent it to him, and he did get a kick out of it... Our movies have become therapy for actors who have done projects that they wish they hadn't."

Prior to writing the Garfield 3 scene, however, the writers had had an even more audacious idea for an after-credits scene that would feature Murray and former Ghostbusters co-stars Harold Ramis, Dan Akyroyd and Ernie Hudson golfing together.

In the proposed scene, Reese said, "Dan Aykroyd of course throws up and becomes a zombie and attacks Bill, and they're hitting each other with golf clubs, and the golf cart's going into the lake."

However, this was re-written after Ramis' death in 2014, with Reese noting, "Time passing can kill jokes quicker than anything." Following Ramis' death, there were rumours that Murray would appear just alongside Akroyd, but director Ruben Fleischer denied this.

He told the ReelBlend podcast: "There was an earlier draft long, long, long, long ago that featured not only Bill Murray, but the Ghostbusters. I think it was long enough ago that perhaps even Harold Ramis was still alive, and I think that draft leaked somehow, and so someone took it upon themselves to enter it into IMDb, but it was never anything that we actually pursued."

Zombieland: Double Tap is in cinemas now.