Look out! Behind You! It’s Marvel Zombies! One of Marvel’s upcoming additions to its animated shows was announced back in 2021 and is set to make its debut in 2024. The series will follow directly on from episode five of What If…? and will see us reintroduced to some of the characters from that episode plus some new additions.
What If… Zombies?! went into an alternate universe whereby the retrieval of Janet van Dyne from the Quantum Realm accidentally set loose a zombie virus that had been safely hidden there. It then spreads across the planet, with many of the Avengers succumbing to it as a handful of survivors do what they can to find a cure all whilst battling their once-good friends turned zombies.
The episode brought back many of the main stars of the MCU to voice their respective characters with Mark Ruffalo, Chadwick Boseman, Paul Bettany, Sebastian Stan, Evangeline Lilly, Paul Rudd, Jon Favreau, and Danai Gurira reprising their roles. The voices of Spider-Man and Captain America were not from their on-screen performers, with Tom Holland and Chris Evans sitting this one out (in Holland’s case it could have been down to Spider-Man’s complicated ownership rights). Spider-Man was voiced by musician Hudson Thames and Captain America by Josh Keaton.
So who will return to voice the characters in Marvel Zombies? What characters will appear in Marvel Zombies? The last we saw, Spider-Man, Ant-Man’s head, and Black Panther, with Doctor Strange’s cloak, head to Wakanda where they believe they can figure out a cure, only for the audience to see that a zombified Thanos awaits them with a nearly complete Infinity Gauntlet.
So who is left to go up against these zombies? What ragtag bunch of heroes could fight against a zombified Avengers team and Thanos? At the 2022 San-Diego Comic Con, Bryan Andrews, director of What If…? and executive producer of Marvel Zombies, let fans in on what they could expect from the series.
Survivors
The heroes are expected to make an appearance as the survivors facing off against the zombie horde include:
- Shang Chi (Simu Li)
- Katy Chen (Awkwafina)
- Death Dealer (Ande Le)
- Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld)
- Jimmy Woo (Randall Park)
- Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh)
- Red Guardian (David Harbour)
- Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani)
Currently, the only confirmed actor appears to be Simu Liu in his role as Shang-Chi, though it is likely that many of the other stars will come back to play their respective characters. It is unknown at this point if the surviving Spider-Man, Ant-Man, and Black Panther from What If… Zombies?! will be included in the series.
Zombies
The zombies appear to include some returning characters, plus some new additions:
- Captain America (Who could either be voiced by Chris Evans or Hudson Thames)
- Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner)
- Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olson)
- Captain Marvel (Brie Larson)
- Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen)
- The Abomination (Time Roth)
An Eternal is also joining in on the flesh-eating fun, in the form of Ikaris (Richard Madden).
Black Widows and Skrulls?
Images taken at the SDCC also include a group of what appears to be Black Widows armed to the teeth and a handful of Skrulls.
Not much else is known about how involved they will be in the series, though give that we know that Skrulls are on Earth, due to the Secret Invasion series (yes we know that this is set in a different universe, but still) it makes sense that there would be some on this Earth as the zombie virus spreads.
The series will be a spin-off from the What If…? series but could also draw inspiration from the comic book series Marvel Zombies which is rather gory to say the least. The upcoming series of the same name will not be shying away from the gore factor given that it is rated TV-MA, basically like an R rating in films, a first for Marvel. This is not a family-friendly series folks.
It also only consists of four episodes, though, seen as Marvel does not stick to a specific episode length with any of its projects, we do not know how long each episode will be. The head of writing is Zeb Wells, who is also acting as executive producer. Wells did work on one episode of What If…? though not the zombie one. He is also serving as a co-writer on The Marvels and previously wrote for She-Hulk: Attorney at Law. He also has been writing for Marvel comics for some time now, notably on many of the Spider-Man titles.
The series does not yet have a confirmed release date, but it will be heading to Disney+ sometime in 2024.