The "zombie army" in Lord of the Rings was in the book Return of the King, published in 1955. The first big, modern zombie movie was Night of the Living Dead i

The "zombie army" in Lord of the Rings was in the book Return of the King, published in 1955. The first big, modern zombie movie was Night of the Living Dead in 1968. So I don't think you can blame them for being unoriginal. Also I'd say they were more ghost than zombie, in both book and movie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYEvmnTghPk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYEvmnTghPk (As for GoT, how many movies have had dragons?)