Marvel Zombies on Disney Plus delivers the gore-soaked, no-holds-barred zombie apocalypse fans have been craving since Robert Kirkman’s comics debuted in 2005, but it’s Scarlet Witch’s evolution into the “Queen of the Dead” that makes this Disney Plus series more than just mindless carnage.
Five years. That’s how long we waited to see what happened after What If…? left us with that gut-punch cliffhanger of zombified Thanos wielding a nearly complete Infinity Gauntlet. Now, after diving deep into all four episodes of Marvel Zombies on Disney Plus, I can tell you this: Bryan Andrews and Zeb Wells didn’t just continue that story—they transformed it into something far more ambitious and terrifying than anyone anticipated.
The Disney Plus series, Marvel’s first TV-MA animated show, finally answers the burning question: what happens when Wanda Maximoff becomes an unstoppable reality-warping zombie queen?
How Does Marvel Zombies Connect to Robert Kirkman’s Original Comics?
As someone who’s been following Robert Kirkman’s work since his early days at Image Comics, I have to appreciate how Marvel Zombies (the animated series) honors the source material while carving its own unique path. Kirkman’s original 2005 comic series, which emerged from Mark Millar’s Ultimate Fantastic Four crossover storylines, introduced the concept of superheroes retaining their personalities and powers while being driven by an insatiable hunger for flesh.
The comics established that infected heroes largely retain their intelligence, personality, and special abilities, with the hunger affecting their self-control—the more hungry they are, the less rational they become. What struck me most about Kirkman’s approach was how he balanced the horror with genuine character moments, showing heroes like Spider-Man experiencing tremendous guilt between feeding frenzies.
The animated series takes this foundation and runs with it in fascinating directions. Animation’s a great place for characters like Shang-Chi and Katy, who each use a set of the Ten Rings, and Kamala’s hardlight power set looks better than it ever has.
What Makes Wanda Maximoff the Queen of the Dead in Marvel Zombies?
The most compelling aspect of Marvel Zombies isn’t the gore or the action sequences (though Spider-Man literally ripping zombie heads off is undeniably satisfying). It’s Elizabeth Olsen’s return as Wanda Maximoff, now evolved into something far more terrifying than her WandaVision or Multiverse of Madness incarnations.
Wanda Maximoff wants to claim the power of the combined Infinity Stones, currently being channeled by the Hulk, and use Kamala’s powers to reshape the world. This isn’t just about hunger anymore—this is about a reality manipulator with godlike powers who’s decided the world needs to be “fixed” on her terms.
What’s particularly brilliant is how the series uses the five-year time jump to show consequences. New York has been completely overgrown with vegetation, giving it that Last of Us aesthetic that immediately communicates the scope of this disaster. But more importantly, it shows how Wanda has evolved from the confined zombie we saw in What If…? into a strategic mastermind commanding an undead army.
The fact that she can still speak coherently, plan strategically, and even appear in normal form to manipulate the Asgardians shows a level of retained consciousness that goes beyond what Kirkman explored in the comics. Many of the Zombies in Marvel Zombies are depicted with red eyes, marking them as under Wanda’s control. This was not the case in ‘What If.. Zombies?!’, so some fans are questioning how she has morphed into the Dead Queen.
How Does Disney Plus Animation Compare to Live-Action Marvel Movies?
The series features the same cel-shaded animation style as What If…?, with character likenesses based on the actors from the films. Having followed Marvel Animation since their early days, I can appreciate how this 2.5D approach—3D models rendered with 2D lighting—allows for the kind of visceral action that would be prohibitively expensive in live-action.
That one-shot sequence of Kamala fleeing while Captain Marvel and Ikaris battle in the background? That’s the kind of ambitious camera work that animation enables but live-action would struggle with, especially with the massive collateral damage these cosmic-level fights would create.
Paul Lasaine’s production design work, building on his What If…? foundation, deserves particular recognition. The “Valley of the Broken Gods” concept—showing two impossibly powerful beings locked in eternal combat—is exactly the kind of mythic imagery that makes this universe feel genuinely apocalyptic rather than just another superhero story with zombies.
Why Is Kamala Khan the Main Character Instead of Spider-Man?
One of the smartest decisions Andrews and Wells made was centering this story around Kamala Khan rather than the usual suspects. There are a lot of fun ideas—such as Kamala, Riri Williams, and Kate Bishop taking a road trip through the zombie apocalypse—that hardly have a chance to develop as each episode rushes to the next destination.
While that criticism has merit, I’d argue that Kamala’s role as the emotional center actually works better than expected. The series reveals how she becomes connected to every other character—consoling Red Guardian after he loses Yelena, serving as the bridge between different survivor groups, and ultimately becoming the key to Wanda’s plan.
What I find particularly compelling is how her powers are utilized. Kamala’s powers to reshape reality itself. Hulk, now transformed into “Infinity Hulk,” puts up a fierce fight against Wanda, but even his strength isn’t enough. The series suggests that Kamala’s crystalline energy constructs have some kind of resonance with reality manipulation that Wanda needs to amplify her already considerable powers.
The Blade/Moon Knight Fusion
One of the more intriguing creative decisions involves Todd Williams voicing Blade as the new Fist of Khonshu. While Mahershala Ali’s live-action Blade film remains in development limbo, this decision allowed the series to be “more free and less tethered to the live-action plans.”
The series provides several impressive sequences, particularly his sword fight with Ghost. What strikes me about this character fusion is how it addresses one of the practical challenges of shared universe storytelling—when you can’t use certain characters due to production schedules, you create something new that honors both properties.
The visual of Khonshu appearing to others while remaining invisible to most people maintains continuity with Oscar Isaac’s Moon Knight series while giving Blade a supernatural anchor that feels organic to both mythologies.
The Infinity Storm and Cosmic Implications
The revelation that Bruce Banner has been containing the energy of destroyed Infinity Stones for five years adds genuine weight to this universe’s predicament. The Hulk was the only being powerful enough to contain all that energy, and so Banner transformed and stood in the same place for years to keep the Infinity energy in check.
This connects brilliantly to Avengers: Endgame‘s established lore about gamma radiation and the Infinity Stones, while explaining why no help has come from cosmic entities or other dimensional beings. This Infinity Storm prevents any signals from leaving Earth, which explains the Nova Corps quarantine.
Speaking of which, the heroes discovered that the Nova Corps was well aware of what was going on, preventing anyone from leaving Earth. The Nova Corps tries to destroy the heroes’ spaceship almost immediately. This adds a layer of cosmic horror—the universe has essentially written off Earth-2149 as a lost cause.
The WandaVision Connection and Reality Manipulation
The series’ ending, with Kamala waking up in what appears to be a normal world, immediately evokes WandaVision‘s Westview hex. Wanda didn’t cure the plague. Instead, she threw Kamala into an illusory world, recalling her deceptive tactics from WandaVision.
What makes this particularly insidious is that Wanda has essentially created a global-scale version of her Westview manipulation. All surviving heroes who sided with her are now trapped in this false reality where “everything is back to normal,” while the actual world continues to be overrun by zombies.
This raises fascinating questions about consent and reality. In WandaVision, the Westview residents were unwilling participants in Wanda’s grief-processing. Here, the heroes actively chose to help Wanda, but did they truly understand what they were agreeing to?
Industry Context and Marvel’s Animation Strategy
Marvel’s first adult animated TV series could have been an infectious watch if not for its slightly rotten story. While that review skews negative, I think it misses the broader significance of what Marvel Zombies represents for Marvel Studios’ animation division.
This is Marvel’s first TV-MA animated series, following the success of X-Men ’97 and preceding several other announced animated projects. Kevin Feige had previously expressed interest in a live-action Marvel Zombies adaptation in 2013, but was not able to accurately adapt the storyline to film due to the MCU’s target demographic.
Animation provides Marvel with a testing ground for concepts, tones, and character combinations that would be too risky or expensive for live-action. The fact that they’re willing to kill off major heroes, show genuine gore, and end on such a bleak cliffhanger suggests a maturation in how Marvel approaches its animated properties.
Technical Criticism and Areas for Growth
While I appreciate the ambition behind Marvel Zombies, the series often depends on the audience’s assumed knowledge of characters and their backstories to do the heavy lifting. This is particularly evident in how quickly characters like Baron Zemo and the Widow family are introduced and utilized.
The four-episode structure feels both too long and too short—too long for the relatively simple plot progression, but too short to properly develop the character relationships that could have elevated this from entertaining spectacle to genuinely emotional storytelling.
Most MCU actors are reprising their live-action roles for animation, similar to What If…?, which can feel jarring since the writing and their performances feel specifically tuned to two separate mediums. This is particularly noticeable with characters like Red Guardian, where David Harbour’s live-action mannerisms don’t always translate smoothly to animation.
The Cliffhanger and Future Implications
The series ends with Riri Williams somehow surviving and attempting to break Kamala out of Wanda’s reality prison. The series doesn’t explain exactly how she survived, though she may have used her tech and FRIDAY to avoid infection. This setup is clearly designed for a second season, though there are just four episodes of “Marvel Zombies,” making it one of the shortest series in their catalogue.
What intrigues me most about the ending is how it positions Wanda as potentially more dangerous than Thanos ever was. Thanos wanted to eliminate half of all life; Wanda wants to control all of reality. With the power she stole from “Infinity Hulk,” Wanda is now basically unstoppable, reality hers to write as she pleases.
Final Verdict: Ambitious Horror with Room to Grow
Marvel Zombies succeeds as both a love letter to Robert Kirkman’s original comics and as a bold experiment in mature Marvel storytelling. While it sometimes prioritizes spectacle over character development, the series establishes a genuinely frightening alternate universe where heroes becoming monsters leads to consequences far beyond typical zombie apocalypse scenarios.
The real test will be whether a potential second season can develop the psychological horror elements that made Kirkman’s comics so memorable, while maintaining the cosmic-scale ambition that sets this apart from standard zombie fiction. Wanda’s reality manipulation adds a layer of existential dread that most zombie stories lack—not only has the world ended, but our perception of reality itself can no longer be trusted.
For longtime fans of Marvel’s horror comics and anyone frustrated with the MCU’s typical reluctance to embrace truly dark themes, Marvel Zombies represents exactly the kind of creative risk-taking that keeps the franchise evolving. It’s messy, violent, and leaves more questions than answers—but sometimes that’s exactly what superhero storytelling needs.
Rating: 7.5/10 – A flawed but fascinating experiment that proves Marvel’s animated universe can go places the live-action films never could.