Why Marvel Zombies on Disney+ Is a Must-Watch for Every Marvel Fan

Marvel Zombies, a TV-MA animated miniseries spun off from the What If…? episode “Zombies?!” (and created by Bryan Andrews and Zeb Wells), dumps the MCU into full survival-horror mode — and for four compact episodes it mostly earns every ounce of gore, grief, and grim joy it promises. The series premiered on Disney+ on September 24, 2025, and drops the entire four-episode arc at once for bingeing. 

Quick facts (so you know what you’re about to watch)

• Format: Four-episode event series, TV-MA, all episodes released at once. 

• Showrunners/Creators: Bryan Andrews (director) and Zeb Wells (writer). 

• Notable voice cast: Elizabeth Olsen, Iman Vellani, Dominique Thorne, Hailee Steinfeld, Simu Liu, Florence Pugh, David Harbour, Randall Park, Todd Williams (Blade), Awkwafina, and others. 

• Early critical reception: mixed-to-positive — Rotten Tomatoes’ Tomatometer sits in the mid-60s range while audience scores skew higher; Metacritic shows mixed/average early reviews. 

What the show is (and what it isn’t)

If you came for a slavish adaptation of the Robert Kirkman/Sean Phillips Marvel Zombies comics — where the infected retain intelligence and the story often follows the zombies’ point of view — you’ll be partially disappointed. The series leans hard into classic zombie-movie mechanics: infected hordes that strip away plot armor, claustrophobic setpieces, supply runs, and escalating, mostly mindless threats. The one major exception is the Queen of the Dead (Wanda), who retains agency and serves as the show’s central antagonist. That choice pushes Marvel Zombies toward a more straightforward survival narrative rather than the morally inverted satire of the comics. 

That said, picking the safer route lets the show deliver polished set-pieces and accessible stakes: if you haven’t been following every corner of the MCU, you can still understand the emotional throughline here — loss, found family, and the last-ditch hope of a cure.

Story & pacing — compact, sometimes formulaic, but effective

The arc picks up roughly five years after the MCU’s alternate Earth fell to the plague (continuing what What If…? began in 2021). Each of the early episodes follows a pragmatic formula: survivors travel to a known MCU location, conflict with the undead occurs, a plan fails, the survivors retreat and regroup. That repetition is deliberate — it leans into the “endless struggle” aspect of post-apocalyptic storytelling — but it can make episodes 1–3 feel predictably structured.

Where the series really pays off is in the way the finale expands the scale: the climactic episode turns the dial up to an almost cinematic level, staging an Avengers-style, Helm’s-Deep-meets-Endgame confrontation that justifies the buildup. Critics have called Episode 4 the show’s highlight for exactly this reason. 

Characters & performances — Phase 4/5 characters get room to breathe

One of the show’s biggest wins is its focus: instead of trotting out only the classic Avengers, Marvel Zombies centers much of its drama on the newer Phase 4 and 5 roster — Kamala Khan (Ms. Marvel), Riri Williams (Ironheart), Kate Bishop, Shang-Chi, Yelena, and others. That choice allows the series to explore relationships and growth that the theatrical slate has often promised but seldom delivered. The Kamala/Kate/Riri team-up is genuinely fun and pays emotional dividends later; Shang-Chi and company being recast as Mad-Max-style raiders is an inspired tonal shift that works surprisingly well. 

Voice performances are a mixed bag: several returning MCU actors lend authenticity and gravitas (Elizabeth Olsen’s Wanda is chilling in a way that anchors the series), while some supporting readovers and newcomers vary in impact. Still, the emotional beats — especially parental or surrogate-family scenes (Kamala and Red Guardian) — land hard, which is key for a horror story that wants us to care about who survives.

Tone, gore and animation

This is Marvel’s first sustained TV-MA animated experiment in the MCU space, and it embraces that rating. The gore is frequent and explicit in a way live-action tentpole Marvel rarely allows. That shock value is used as a storytelling tool — bodies are lost, consequences matter — and the show earns its darker moments by following through on them.

Animation-wise, the series wears its What If…? DNA: cel-shaded, high-contrast visuals that can feel stylized. In quieter, character-driven scenes, faces can sometimes look flattened and details muted; but when the action ramps up, the style transforms into something kinetic — almost anime in its speed and spectacle. The finale’s widescreen choreography benefits massively from this contrast, turning what might be a budget constraint into a stylistic asset. 

How it compares to the comics and What If…?

• Comics: The Kirkman/Phillips material revels in the moral inversion of making the zombies protagonists. The show borrows the premise but not the moral experiment; instead, it’s a horror survival show with Marvel bloodlust.

• What If…?: The original What If…? episode served as the seed and offered a fast, punchy take. Marvel Zombies expands that seed into a longer, more developed exploration — and it benefits from the extra breathing room, even if it sometimes reverts to formulaic beats. 

Main strengths

• Consequences matter. The show strips away guaranteed survival and lets the MCU feel dangerous again.

• Character focus. Prioritizing Phase 4/5 characters gives the series a fresh emotional center and finally plays with toys that the films introduced but rarely used together.

• Scale when necessary. The finale shows the creators can stage spectacle that approaches cinematic Marvel peaks — in animated form. 

Main weaknesses

• Early episodes feel repetitive. The “go to location → get overrun → retreat” cycle dulls momentum until the finale.

• Missed opportunity for moral complexity. By largely avoiding the comics’ idea of sentient infected heroes, the series loses an avenue for darkly funny or philosophically challenging scenes.

• Uneven voice work and occasional thin writing. Some peripheral characters don’t get the depth they deserve in a tight four-episode run. Critical aggregation reflects those flaws: reviews are mixed but fan responses are warmer. 

The finale (lightly touched) — why it matters

The last episode provides the payoff: the action becomes audacious and the emotional stakes are high. The show’s animation and sound design lean into the spectacle, and the ending — bleak and divisive to some — feels tonally honest for this universe. If the series stumbles in any place, it redeems itself with a finale that proves the creators trusted their premise enough to go big. 

Broader significance to the MCU

There’s a meta element to Marvel Zombies that critics and fans keep noting: it does what the broader Multiverse Saga often hasn’t — it brings characters together and lets relationships develop in service of a singular, consequential plot. For viewers tired of disjointed setpieces and too many new toys, this series is a reminder that tighter, character-first storytelling can still pay off. Whether Marvel will take that lesson into its live-action roadmap is another question — but Marvel Zombies makes a persuasive case for focusing on what’s already in the sandbox. 

Final verdict

Marvel Zombies is not a flawless reinvention of either the comics or the What If…? concept, but it’s a bold, entertaining foray that gives the MCU something it’s been starved of lately: real stakes, messy consequences, and characters forced into meaningful interactions. For horror-leaning Marvel fans, and anyone who’s wanted the studio to stop protecting its players with plot armor, this miniseries is a welcome — and often gloriously gory — detour.

Score: 7.5 / 10 — strong character work, thrilling finale, and the courage to go dark; hampered by formulaic early episodes and occasional missed opportunities.

Recommendation: who should watch it?

• Watch if: you liked the What If…? “Zombies?!” episode, enjoy gore in a superhero setting, or want to see Phase 4/5 characters with real stakes.

• Skip (or tread carefully) if: you prefer cerebral horror about morality and identity (the show opts more for survival set-pieces than philosophical inversion).

Marvel Zombies proves that when the MCU takes risks, it can still thrill and terrify in equal measure. Whether you’re in it for the gore, the grit, or the chance to see newer heroes finally get their due, this series is a reminder that Marvel has plenty of bite left.

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