diff --git a/.gitmodules b/.gitmodules
index eb61a866..4d712d7e 100644
--- a/.gitmodules
+++ b/.gitmodules
@@ -19,6 +19,9 @@
 [submodule "buildtools"]
 	path = buildtools
 	url = https://github.com/denoland/chromium_buildtools.git
+[submodule "third_party/zlib"]
+	path = third_party/zlib
+	url = https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/third_party/zlib.git
 [submodule "third_party/icu"]
 	path = third_party/icu
 	url = https://github.com/denoland/icu.git
diff --git a/.gn b/.gn
index 117c4530..ab6d9c87 100644
--- a/.gn
+++ b/.gn
@@ -30,10 +30,7 @@ default_args = {
   symbol_level = 1
   use_debug_fission = false
 
-  # Deno does its own snapshot compression using lz4 and zstd.
-  v8_use_zlib = false
   v8_enable_snapshot_compression = false
-
   v8_enable_javascript_promise_hooks = true
   v8_promise_internal_field_count = 1
   v8_use_external_startup_data = false
diff --git a/third_party/zlib b/third_party/zlib
new file mode 160000
index 00000000..9979c19f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/third_party/zlib
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Subproject commit 9979c19f11314156490b53da91df08c934a3c0d4