Marvel Zombies is here, bringing hordes of the undead to the MCU just in time for Halloween. The new four-episode series is a spin-off of What If...? Season 1's zombie-centric Episode 5. That episode posited a world where Janet van Dyne was infected with a virus that turned her into a zombie, which spread through the Avengers and into the rest of the world. In the episode, Vision sacrifices himself so that the Mind Stone can be used against the virus, Wanda Maximoff becomes the leader of the zombie horde, and Bruce Banner turns into the Hulk in hopes of pushing back her attack.
Marvel Zombies is the first official spinoff of What If...?, but not the first time we've seen its alternate characters and universes outside that series. Hayley Atwell's Captain Carter appeared in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness as an Earth-838 variant of the character, essentially bridging the unique character alterantives of What If...? into the wider MCU.
With the Multiverse Saga slowly inching toward its conclusion in Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars, there's no telling what other variants might find their way beyond the flagship animated Marvel series. In the meantime, we have a planetful of zombies and oh so little time for our heroes to do something about it.
Marvel Zombies Is Peppered With Stellar Performances
While there are debates over whether the MCU ultimately benefited from the various series that have populated Disney+, one element that has always been welcome is Marvel Studios' frequent commissioning of the same actors across its film and series properties. That's true here to a large extent, particularly pertaining to the younger talents that seem poised to form a Young Avengers roster if, you know, that's a thing that ever actually happens.
Iman Vellani is once again a delight as the tragically underutilized Kamala Khan/Ms. Marvel. She's surely Zombies' heart, providing good-natured earnestness and occasional levity, just like she did in her flagship series. She's well met by Dominique Thorne in her third appearance as Riri Williams/Ironheart, who excels in Ironheart and provides as strong a performance here as the no-nonsense, brave, and brilliant Williams.
Florence Pugh and David Harbour maintain strong chemistry as Yelena Belova/Black Widow and Alexei Shostakov/Red Guardian, while Elizabeth Olsen delivers the wide range of Wanda Maximoff's complexity as the now enthroned Queen of the Dead. Hailee Steinfeld and Simu Liu both also get stellar showcases, reminding audiences why it's unfortunate we've seen so little movement on their subsequent big-screen, canonical MCU projects.
While we're on the topic, it's a pity that we once again haven't seen one iota of Mahershala Ali's Blade (here the avatar of Khonshu), though Todd Williams delivers a great performance. His Blade Knight receives delightful showcases of badassery. Though the series has only four half-hour-ish episodes, there are a lot of interesting moments in the stacked cast.
Marvel Zombies Deserved a Longer Season
Marvel Zombies has much going for it, including high-octane battle sequences featuring interesting versions of fan-favorite characters, including Hulk, Scarlet Witch, Thor, and others. It's difficult to discuss highlights without spoiling much, but there are engaging, action-packed sequences within New Asgard, under the sea, and elsewhere. Heroes, whether zombified or otherwise, often get a good showing, and the brevity of the series helps pace out a world that, at least when we enter it, is rather bleak.
That brevity is both a blessing and, at times, a curse. There are a lot of characters, it's positively packed with talent, but with only four brief episodes, many have brief moments of interaction but are underutilized in practice. Ms. Marvel, Scarlet Witch, and a few others get by well with enough time to have an actual arc, but a number are involved for a mere few lines or so. It's a particular pity for characters like Simu Liu's Shang-Chi or Steinfeld's Kate Bishop, who have been woefully underserved in the MCU: there's just enough time to examine what we've been missing.
As for tone, Marvel Zombies is gratefully little censored in its action or horror moments. It goes hard in the metaphorical paint for that and action and should be commended, but delivering more episodes would be wildly beneficial to the development of its horrors. In four scant episodes, there's little time to properly develop atmosphere or dread to pivot it into true horror territory. Good ideas abound here, and the animation is a success, but the narrative is far too fleeting. By the time it gets going, it's gone.
Marvel Zombies is an interesting mixed bag. On the one hand, it delivers a bountiful array of top-shelf performances, nice action moments, and horror elements in a beautifully animated package. On the other, it's far too short to do proper justice to many of these elements (save for specific characters). It's hard to lose the feeling that so much could be done with this world if it were allowed. Instead, we're offered a delicious round of appetizers and left awaiting a feast that may never come.
Final Rating: 6/10
Marvel Zombies dropped all four episodes on September 24, 2025, on Disney+.
