Marvel Zombies Delivers the Bloody MCU Makeover What If…? Should’ve Been

Marvel Zombies is a Disney Plus spinoff miniseries that reimagines key moments from the Marvel Cinematic Universe with a zombie-plague premise. Directed by Bryan Andrews and written by Zeb Wells, the show continues a loose adaptation of Robert Kirkman’s Marvel Zombies comics and elements first introduced in What If…? season 1. This article summarizes the series’ setup, main characters, visual style, and how it connects to MCU moments. Note: this article contains spoilers.

1. Overview
2. Plot and MCU connections
3. Characters and performances
4. Visuals, rating and action
5. Further notes and links

Overview

Marvel Zombies is an MA-rated animated miniseries on Disney Plus. It builds on a cliffhanger from the What If…? Zombies?! episode and retells the aftermath of the events that mirror Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, focusing on the zombie plague’s impact rather than a multiversal team-up.

Plot and MCU connections

The series centers on the immediate and long-term consequences of a zombie outbreak that spreads across the MCU. Several set pieces intentionally echo major film moments: heroes gather in a battle similar to the one in Wakanda from Infinity War, and the story explores the five-year aftermath concept introduced in Endgame, but from a survival and rebuilding perspective. In addition, the show revisits the origin beats of Phase Four characters and presents alternate origins for some of them.

Characters and performances

Lead cast members from Phase Four appear in altered roles or circumstances. For example:

• Iman Vellani voices Kamala Khan, who gains a magical bangle shortly before the outbreak.
• Hailee Steinfeld voices Kate Bishop, who takes on the Hawkeye mantle while hunted by a zombified Clint Barton.
• Dominique Thorne voices Riri Williams, who is depicted controlling armor taken from Tony Stark’s corpse.
• Greg Furman voices a reimagined, scarred Thor.
• David Harbour voices Red Guardian in a notable confrontation with Captain America.
• Simu Liu and Feodor Chin appear in a sequence that retells Shang-Chi’s first moments with a zombie-apocalypse framing.
• Elizabeth Olsen voices a version of Wanda Maximoff who appears as a major antagonist, titled the “Queen of the Dead” in the series context.
• Rama Vallury voices Baron Zemo, who is shown running S.H.I.E.L.D.’s underwater prison, the Raft, in this timeline.

Visuals, rating and action

The series holds an MA rating, which allows for explicit gore. The animation emphasizes visceral fight choreography and large-scale set pieces. One recurring location is called the Valley of the Fallen Gods, a site where deathless heroes are locked in eternal combat, used to stage visually destructive sequences. Fight scenes combine fast cuts and physical comedy in places, for instance the confrontation between Captain America and Red Guardian, and a sequence that merges action elements reminiscent of Ant-Man and the Wasp and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings to depict the outbreak’s opening moments.

Further notes and links

The miniseries explicitly uses MCU characters and settings in alternate, non‑canonical ways. It also revisits material and concepts from the What If…? animated series. For readers curious about examples of What If…? episodes that leaned into unusual premises, one such instance discussed online is the “Happy Hogan doing Die Hard” example explained in more detail on this Screen Rant piece.

For factual context: director Bryan Andrews and writer Zeb Wells are credited as primary creative leads on the miniseries, and the show adapts concepts from Robert Kirkman’s Marvel Zombies comics while connecting them to moments from MCU films.