Posted in: Disney+, TV | Tagged: marvel zombies

Marvel Zombies Is Keeping a Kill Count; Peter Parker Has Some Advice

With Marvel Zombies hitting on Sept. 24th, we look at the animated series' kill count and Peter Parker's (aka Spider-Man) sound advice.

It seems our favorite MCU heroes and villains are hungry – and guess who's at the top of the menu? In less than three weeks, showrunner and director Bryan Andrews and Marvel Animation will unleash Marvel Zombies across Disney+ screens – September 24th, to be precise. As we inch closer to the TV-MA-rated animated series' premiere, we've got two very cool previews to pass along.

First up, we have a mini-teaser that gives you a sense of what the animated series' kill count is going to be (spoiler: it's a lot), followed by a flashback to the What If…? episode where Peter Parker offers a rundown of what folks need to know to survive a "Marvel Zombie-pocalypse":

During an August interview with Collider, Andrews announced that the TV-MA-rated animated series would be arriving early. As for what viewers can expect, Andrews is confident that they've got some surprises that will catch them off guard. "I would hope so, yes. I'm sure there's some things that… I'm not as up to date with all the stuff that's already out, but I bet you dollars to donuts that they haven't mentioned, but I would hope that they haven't mentioned a couple of things that we do want to be an honest surprise. So, we'll see. It's up to marketing and such on how they want to let some of these secrets come out, but yeah. We hope that there are some surprises still left, so you can see the episode and go, 'What?' And then next thing you know, bing, and now you can purchase, you know, as opposed to purchase first before you even see the context in the episode," Andrews explained.

Marvel Television and Marvel Animation head Brad Winderbaum addressed the connection between the series and the episode from the original animated anthology series What If…? during an interview with EW at the end of 2024. "If you remember that zombies episode from season 1 [S01E05: "What If… Zombies?!"] – that is very much like the part 1 prologue for this giant, epic event that is coming out next year," Winderbaum shared, adding that those who need a refresher or haven't watched it yet should "definitely" do it before October. But what if you prefer to dive right in without doing any "homework"?

As Winderbaum sees it, the series works on two different levels – you could watch just the four episodes and enjoy the story that's laid out, or you could watch the What If…? episode for more of a "bigger picture" understanding of what's going down. "It ties right in. It is the same universe. If you've never seen that episode of 'What If…?' you do come at the universe from a different angle. So you could just watch the four episodes of 'Marvel Zombies' coming in completely blind because it does tell its own story. But if you do know that episode of 'What If…?' and what happens in it, it does connect entirely to that episode," Winderbaum explained.

Marvel Zombies: What We Previously Learned…

Early on, we learned that the "What If…?" spinoff series would include zombie versions of Ghost, Abomination, Captain Marvel, Scarlet Witch, Hawkeye, Okoye, and Captain America. On the not-quite-so-dead side, we have the non-zombie versions of Jimmy Woo, Kate Bishop, Yelena, Shang Chi, and Ms. Marvel. The official cast rundown includes Awkwafina, David Harbour, Simu Liu, Elizabeth Olsen, Randall Park, Florence Pugh, Hailee Steinfeld, Dominique Thorne, Iman Vellani, and Todd Williams.

During a Disney fan event, Winderbaum screened a preview of the series that spotlighted Wenwu, Shang-Chi, and Katy fighting against zombies. While The Ten Rings save a bitten Shang-Chi from the infection, Wenwu isn't so lucky. After a five-year time jump, we witness Shang-Chi and Katy using The Ten Rings in a fight against some biker Skrulls that look like it was taken directly from the "Mad Max" playbook – wasteland and all. Except with a little Journey thrown into the mix.

Produced by Marvel Animation, Disney+'s Marvel Zombies stemmed from a teleplay by Zeb Wells and was directed by Bryan Andrews – with the story written by Wells and Andrews. Wells, Andrews, Winderbaum, Kevin Feige, Louis D'Esposito, and Dana Vasquez-Eberhardt serve as executive producers – with Danielle Costa and Carrie Wassenaar producing.

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