Marvel Zombies has premiered on Disney+ and has impressed the audience with its fresh take on the MCU lore. The show is set in an alternate timeline where superheroes have turned into zombies due to a virus.
A group of survivors then has to protect themselves and the world from the threat. The show features voices of MCU veterans like Elizabeth Olsen, Simu Liu, Tessa Thompson, Florence Pugh, Dominique Thorne, and Iman Vellani.
Considering that another Marvel series, What If...? featured an episode with a similar concept, fans are wondering whether Marvel Zombies continues from What If..? The answer is yes. The new show continues the story featured in the Zombies episode of the predecessor, which aired in 2021.
Marvel Zombies continues the story of What If... Zombies?!
Marvel Zombies is a direct continuation of What If... Zombies?!, which aired on Disney+ on September 8, 2021. Bryan Andrews, the director of What If... Zombies?!, serves as the co-creator and showrunner of the new series. The show also features a similar animation style to its predecessor.
The events of the series pick up five years after the events of What If... Zombies? In the original show, Janet van Dyne brought back a virus from the Quantum Realm, and it ended up turning heroes into zombies. The episode ended with a cliffhanger, showing zombie Thanos in Wakanda with the Infinity Gauntlet.
Marvel Zombies takes that setup and shows what happens after. While the previous series only teased the chaos, the new show focuses on how people try to survive in a post-apocalyptic world. Several characters from What If…? return from the sequel, including Scott Lang, Okoye, and Wanda.
The series also introduces new heroes from the MCU’s Phase Four, including Kamala Khan, Kate Bishop, and Riri Williams. The battles of Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame are retold in the show, but with a dark twist.
Hence, Marvel Zombies grows directly out of What If... Zombies?! episode and expands its story. Talking about how the team decided to continue the story of What If... Zombies?!, Bryan Andrews said in an interview with Variety:
“It was early on, once it was decided that we’re gonna be doing “What If…?” Kevin Feige was a fan of the comics and the zombie genre in general. Way early on, Kevin had said something to [Marvel animation executive] Brad Winderbaum, who then said to us, “We’re totally doing a zombie thing!”
“It was almost one of the reasons to even do “What If…?” — so that we could do an episode that was zombies. We found a place in time, right around [the events of] “Infinity War,” because it provided a number of heroes that were out and about. Kevin loved it, so it was like we should be doing a bigger thing and explore this world a little bit more.”
The series stars Paul Rudd as Scott Lang, Tessa Thompson as Valkyrie, Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff, Wyatt Russell as John Walker, Awkwafina as Katy, David Harbour as Alexei Shostakov, Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova, Todd Williams as Blade Knight, Dominique Thorne as Riri Williams, Hailee Steinfeld as Kate Bishop, and Iman Vellani as Kamala Khan, among others.
Marvel Zombies is streaming on Disney+.