Ruben Fleischer, the director of zombie comedy "Zombieland", has explained why it took him ten years to make a sequel, saying that he wanted to maintain a "really high standard" of storytelling.

The filmmaker is back with the much-awaited sequel "Zombieland: Double Tap" with the core cast of Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin reprising their fan-favourite characters.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Fleischer said he and film's writing team -- Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick and David Callaham -- struggled to crack the "right story" for the sequel.

"The easy answer (to the 10-year gap) is, I think we all wanted to stretch our legs a little bit and try different things. I think we were all excited to do other stuff. But, the other thing is, we just couldn't figure out the right story to tell. It took a minute to get a story that we all felt was worthy, to come back to 'Zombieland' for," the director said.

"We all have so much love for the original. So, we hold ourselves to a really high standard as far as making sure that, if we were going to make a sequel, that it be at least as good, if not better, than the original. And that ultimately all comes down to the script. So, we were all demanding and discerning to make sure the story was one that was worth getting the gang back together. Sometimes it does take time to get that right," he added.

"Zombieland: Double Tap", which also feature Rosario Dawson, Zoey Deutch, Luke Wilson, Thomas Middleditch and Dan Aykroyd, is scheduled to be released on October 18, 2019.