REVIEW -- Marvel Zombies (Disney+ Exclusive Miniseries) Episodes 1-4

Marvel Zombies is an American adult animated television miniseries created by Bryan Andrews and Zeb Wells for the streaming service Disney+, based on the Marvel Comics series of the same name. It is the 16th television series in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) from Marvel Studios and is produced by Marvel Studios Animation. The series is set in the alternate timeline introduced in the "What If... Zombies?!" (2021) episode of the animated series What If...? (2021–2024). Continuing from that episode, Marvel Zombies follows a group of survivors as they risk their lives fighting superpowered zombies to save the world. Andrews served as showrunner and director, with Wells as head writer.

The series features an ensemble cast including Iman Vellani, Dominique Thorne, Hailee Steinfeld, Kerry Condon, Kenna Ramsey, Todd Williams, Kari Wahlgren, Florence Pugh, David Harbour, Simu Liu, Awkwafina, Randall Park, Feodor Chin, Wyatt Russell, Rama Vallury, Elizabeth Olsen, Hudson Thames, Paul Rudd, Greg Furman, Adam Hugill, Daniel Swain, Sheila Atim, Tessa Thompson, F. Murray Abraham, and Zenobia Shroff. Marvel Studios was developing several animated series in addition to What If...? by June 2021, including a spin-off based on "What If... Zombies?!" which was announced in November. Wells and Andrews were both involved by then. The series features the same animation style as What If...?, with Stellar Creative Lab returning from that series to provide the animation. It is Marvel Studios Animation's first series to be rated TV-MA.

Marvel Zombies was released on Disney+ on September 24, 2025, and consists of four episodes. It is a part of Phase Six of the MCU.

Premise

Marvel Zombies is set in the alternate timeline introduced in the What If...? episode "What If... Zombies?!" (2021), where a virus has turned most of the world's population, including the Avengers, into zombies. The series follows a group of survivors as they discover the key to bringing an end to the zombie plague, which leads them to risk their lives traveling across a dystopian landscape and fighting superpowered zombies to save the world.

Episode One

Full disclaimer for those who don't know the origins of the zombie virus: In this reality, Hank Pym went to the Quantum Realm to save his wife like he did in the events of Ant-Man & the Wasp, but when he found her, she was already infected with a quantum virus that transformed her into a zombie. She infects Pym before they both return to his lab, attacking Scott Lang while their daughter, Hope van Dyne, escapes. The virus spreads across the Northwestern United States within 24 hours. The Avengers respond, but they are infected themselves and turn the virus into a worldwide zombie apocalypse. 

During the events of that episode, an infected Hope van Dyne sacrifices herself in a desperate attempt to give the surviving heroes - Bruce Banner, Bucky Barnes, Okoye, Sharon Carter, Kurt (one of Scott Lang's friends), and Happy Hogan - a chance to get to the camp to meet Vision to acquire the Mind Stone. Carter, Hope, and Hogan are infected in a battle against zombified versions of Steve Rogers, Clint Barton, and Sam Wilson. Vision reveals that the Mind Stone can reverse the effects of the virus, as he cured the zombified preserved head of Scott Lang. Unfortunately, the zombified Wanda Maximoff has been resisting the Stone, so Vision has been keeping her alive by feeding other survivors to her, including T'Challa. Maximoff breaks free, kills Kurt and Barnes, and infects Okoye while Vision, unwilling to live without Maximoff, sacrifices himself to give up the Mind Stone so the others can cure the world with it. 

Back to the story with the trio, Kate acquires one of Clint Barton's trick arrows from an altercation with his zombie counterpart and decides to use it against the zombie Carol Danvers. That didn't go well for her at all and she's promptly killed by one of Danvers' energy blasts while Kamala and Riri are attacked by a horde of zombies. They are quickly overwhelmed and Riri gets bitten in the skirmish, urging her to order F.R.I.D.A.Y. (Tony Stark's artificial intelligence program that is piloting one of his empty Ironman suits) to take Kamala to safety with the device. FRIDAY drops her off a safe distance away but goes back to aid Riri after stating that she wasn't going to stand and do nothing while another one of her operators perishes. We don't see Riri's fate (it's safe to assume that it was nothing good), but Kamala is rescued by Blade Knight (an amalgamation of both Blade and Moon Knight). He agrees to help her get the device to the Ohio SHIELD base. 

It is around this point of the episode where Kamala has the first of many "dreams" that haunt her throughout this series that end with the Scarlet Witch/Wanda Maximoff calling out to her. After reading about the creators' of this series comparing Kamala's role to Frodo Baggins in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, I can easily see the comparison to Sauron calling out to the "one ring" and haunting Frodo throughout that journey. The difference being that the device is the McGuffin that is driving everything forward - along with Kamala's desperation to be the one that saves the world after witnessing all of these horrifying sacrifices that her friends and allies have made along the way. 

The pair arrive at the Ohio SHIELD base, only to find it acting as a stronghold and base of operations for former Black Widows - Melina Vostokoff and Yelena Belova along with Alexei Shostakov and an army of Black Widows freed from their programming. Melina has been using the old Widows technology to control the minds of the zombies surrounding the area to act as a natural defense system. It proves to be effective until zombie Okoye shows up with her own army of zombies loyal to the "Queen of the Dead" aka zombie Scarlet Witch. Okoye sends in the zombies of Steve Rogers (just his upper body), Clint Barton, Ava Starr / Ghost, and Emil Blonsky / Abomination to make short work of the Black Widows and Melina's zombies. Alexei kills the zombie Rogers in comedic fashion while Blade Knight makes short work of zombie Ava. Melina sacrifices herself for the rest of the group to escape as her zombie reprogramming proves to be ineffective against Okoye's forces. This episode ends with a glimmer of hope after Blade Knight informs the survivors that he knows where to find a ship to take the device into space to boost its signal.

Episode Two

Episode Two starts with a flashback, following Xu Shang-Chi, his best friend Katy Chen, FBI officer Jimmy Woo, and a group of survivors being saved from the zombie horde by the Ten Rings organization led by Shang-Chi's father Xu Wenwu. Shang-Chi is bitten during the ordeal, prompting Wenwu to bestow him with his mystical Ten Rings to contain the infection, but leaving himself defenseless to the incoming zombies while allowing the survivors time to escape. Fast forward to the present, we find Shang-Chi, Woo, Katy, Death Dealer, and their group acting as if they were in a Mad Max movie in terms of how they have been surviving on the road until they arrive at Helmut Zemo's sanctuary, the Raft. By sheer coincidence, Kamala's group is here as well. Oh, I wonder how this is going to turn out? #sarcasm

The two groups agree to work together to complete Kamala's quest to get the device into space. I should mention that it is never explained, but Shang-Chi is somehow allowing Katy to "share" half of the Ten Rings with her to defend herself with. I found it ironic and very convenient that they never bring up that both the Ten Rings and Kamala's bangle are both "alien" objects of power. They both merely acknowledge that their powers are pretty cool and just left it at that. I'm sure Marvel Studios doesn't even have an explanation nor payoff for that either at this stage when this miniseries went into development. 

Zemo (with John Walker acting as his right hand man) took the Raft into the deep sea as he intended it to be a safe haven of sorts for survivors and refugees trying to get away from the desert wasteland that the zombies have left most of the world at this point. As SOON as he mentioned this, I laughed as my mind went immediately to the Talokanil and Namor. Low and behold, that's what we got in this episode in terms of zombified versions of those adversaries that the Wakandans faced in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. At this point, the Raft became a floating/sinking prison (oh the irony there) or rather coffin for anyone who couldn't defend themselves from the zombie Talokanil breaking in. Zemo tries to desert everyone and leave them to fend for themselves but the escape pod jams, causing Yelena to stay behind to manually override it. Namor kills Walker and most of Shang-Chi's survivor crew members (save for Katy, Shang-Chi, Death-Dealer, and Woo) and goes straight for Kamala and the device after revealing that Wanda is pursuing her. Kamala manages to kill Namor with her powers while Yelena stays behind. Yelena toasts to her fallen allies before she is infected and the Raft floods completely, killing her in the process to close this episode.

I know it may have felt like I glossed over this episode, but trust me, it wasn't intentional. The episode plays out from this lackluster description to the tee, despite treating viewers with some chilling sequences of action of how terrifying a zombified Namor (along with the rest of the Talokanil) was able to move around and overwhelm these individuals. To me personally, this was one of the weaker episodes as it felt exactly like one of those episodes/arcs of The Walking Dead where the main characters meet up with a new party who integrates with their own, only to pad up the body count for the next pending sequence to whittle their numbers down to much more reasonable numbers while protecting the key cast members with plot armor. I'm not saying this was a bad episode, but it reminded me of a lot of the patterns and highly predictable tropes that I don't care from this genre. 

Episode Three

Episode Three answers the question that I was wondering since this started - what happened next from where the What If...? episode ended on that cliffhanger when Spider-Man, Scott Lang's head, and T'Challa arrive in Wakanda to discover that it has been completely infected by a zombie Thanos with five out of six Infinity Stones. The longer the fight goes on, the more they realize that this zombie is actually learning how to wield the Stones the longer they drag this fight out. Fortunately, Thor arrives on the scene in heroic fashion, much like his entrance in Avengers: Infinity War, armed with Stormbreaker accompanied by Rocket and Groot. Zombie Thanos kills Rocket and Groot with minimal effort while seemingly doing the same to Thor. T'Challa takes the Mind Stone and makes a last stand against Thanos, sacrificing himself by lunging at the Mad Titan and plunging them both into Wakanda's vibranium core. As a result, the Infinity Stones are destroyed, releasing a surge of energy. Peter and Scott are pulled from the resulting explosion by the surviving sorcerers of Kamar-Taj, who are planning one last hail Mary against the Queen of the Dead. 

"What if this entire place is in one big WandaVision veil of deception like she cast on Westview?"

My question was quickly answered as Wanda's deception was revealed and the Asgardians found out that they were eating the rotten corpses of zombies. This causes all of the Asgardians to become infected and turn on the group, Valkyrie, and the grief-stricken Thor. Kamala calls out to him to take action but it falls on deaf ears as everyone tries to defend him. The horde kills Zemo, Woo, and Death Dealer in swift fashion, forcing them all to flee to the spaceship that Valkyrie leads them to. Alexei becomes infected from feasting on the food earlier, forcing Kamala to reluctantly kill him as well before making a hasty retreat onto the spaceship. Their escape is halted as they are cornered by the Queen of the Dead as Wanda approaches in all of her undead glory. The significance of this meeting is that she states that she isn't after the device, but after Kamala herself. Kamala refuses to listen while the horde continues to try to breach the ship, only for Thor to make the save. Thor stays behind to face Wanda and the zombie army on his own, allowing Kamala's group to escape into space. They activate the beacon and the Nova Corps show up immediately, but Valkyrie states that something is wrong. The Nova Corps never show up that fast to any system, especially one so far away from Zandar. The Nova Corps reveal that the Earth is under quarantine and no one is coming to help them solve the outbreak. 

(Laughs) If I was being anal about the details in this, I would call out how the hell does even anyone know who the Nova Corps are outside of the Guardians of the Galaxy. They were the only characters seen interacting with them out of these films and television shows. Sure, we could connect the dots and determine/assume that either Captain Marvel / Carol Danvers or the Guardians themselves may have told the Avengers and/or Nick Fury about them, but at the same time, the timeline of events is all over the place in this universe, so many things in this universe would be very, very different than the circumstances of what we have been familiar with in the main 616 continuity. 

For example, Nick Fury may have called Carol back to Earth much like he did during the events of Avengers: Infinity War once the Snap occurred, only for her to come to Earth and witness the zombie outbreak. She would be immediately concerned with checking in on her best friend, Maria Rambeau and her daughter, Monica, and may have lowered her guard long enough for one of the zombies to have infected her. With the infection originating from the quantum realm, there are a multitude of possibilities of how the infection has spread, so I can't allow my enjoyment of this zombie apocalypse story to be ruined by nitpicking every instance of how all of these superpowered individuals were infected. This miniseries has kept the details of how this infection works intentionally vague, so that was for the better if I'm perfectly honest.

Episode Four

Episode Four resumes their confrontation with the Nova Corps, who respond by shooting down their spaceship, thus sending them pummeling back to the planet below. 

(Laughs) Can you blame the Nova Corps though? With zombie Thanos wielding the Infinity Stones, Captain Marvel infected along with the Eternals, there's really little to nothing that they could do against any of this, especially once the Asgardians went down at the hands of the Queen of the Dead. We are at that point of power scaling where only either the Sorcerer Supreme or Celestials could resolve this matter on an intergalactical scale. The best the Nova Corps can do at all in this situation is contain the infection from leaving this planet and if all else fails, annihilate the planet completely. 

Fortunately for Kamala's group, they are rescued by the remaining sorcerers of Kamar-Taj, who saved Peter Parker / Spider-Man and Scott Lang's head in the previous episode. They inform everyone that the surging energy of the Infinity Stones that was created from T'Challa's sacrifice by plunging Thanos and the Infinity Gauntlet into Wakanda's vibranium core is being contained by "Infinity Hulk" - a mystically augmented version of Bruce Banner / Hulk that is both of them while at the same time neither. He merely exists as a guardian to stop anyone from taking this infinite well of power for themselves. Naturally, Wanda shows up to take the power for herself as she reveals that her true intention was to amass an army powerful enough to defeat him and take that power for herself. Infinity Hulk effortlessly fights off the zombies initially but even he is overwhelmed. The remaining heroes arrive on the scene to make a last stand defending him, but they all fall one by one to impossible odds. It takes all of Infinity Hulk's diminished strength to fend off a zombie Thor, which leaves him weak enough for Wanda to take his power. 

Wanda makes one last request to Kamala as she is watching all of her remaining friends dying around her - help her remake the world. Kamala hesitates, only to accept Wanda's offer and becomes the hero of this story as she desperately wanted to be since the first episode. Everything goes to white and the episode ends with Kamala waking up back at home. She reunites with Riri and Kate Bishop with things seemingly back to normal. There is one last twist as reality flickers with the real Riri calling out to Kamala that she has "hacked the system" and what she is seeing isn't real.

That is one hell of a mic drop to end on if this miniseries isn't getting another season nor conclusion. On one hand, I could easily see this miniseries not getting another season for one reason or another and Disney/Marvel Studios being completely fine with leaving the ending openly vague like this. Establishing that this wasn’t “real” leaves the door open that all of this violence and death to multiple beloved heroes and characters in general is the perfect type of “hand wavey” erasure that Hollywood (and comic books in general) tends to favor to reset the board and return things back to the status quo at the end of events like this.

My Pitch for a Resolution to this Story

At the same time, a part of me feels like this entire miniseries could be leading into something else - Avengers: Secret Wars. 

Hear me out on this pretty far-fetched prediction, but I could see this turn of events leading into how we get the Young Avengers in Avengers: Secret Wars. We haven't seen Kamala Khan in anything in the main 616 canonical timeline since The Marvels. Who says that this isn't our Kamala Khan? This is going to be a bold prediction, but I think it will be revealed in Avengers: Doomsday that Doctor Doom has been operating behind the scenes of (almost) everything in the Multiverse Saga. He followed Wanda through her downward spiral that led to her casting the spell on the innocent people in Westview and coming into possession of the Darkhold from Agatha Harkness that led into the events of Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness that saw her untimely demise. That would be the kicker - Wanda never actually "died".

Closing Thoughts

Do I think that this is must-see television and is that shot in the arm of adrenaline that the Marvel Cinematic Universe needed to get itself out of the rut it has been in lately? Not necessarily, but I thought this was a fun watch. It held my attention from start to finish to make me binge-watch it entirely in one sitting, so I say mission accomplished in the regard of making this worth my time. Of course, I know that there will be numerous skeptics and habitual nit-pickers who frown upon and complain about everything that Marvel Studios puts out nowadays who will write this off as not being worth their time just because the story centers around Kamala Khan / Ms. Marvel. I even had one of my close friends have that very same reaction where he audibly groaned at the trio of Ironheart, Kate Bishop, and Ms. Marvel working together at the start of this miniseries. I'm proud of him for sticking with it to the end, but I'm tired of being one of the few who stand on the soapbox to tell people to give this stuff a fair shot before you instantly paint it with a highly misinformed take or calling it another misfire to the detriment of the MCU following Endgame with that commonly overused phase: "Go woke, go broke."

Is this miniseries anything revolutionary or groundbreaking? No, but it's a fun watch and that's all what it needed to be with a four episode order. It's not demanding much of your free time as a viewer. It stays on a steady pace and doesn't really pull on the punches when the action gets going. The sheer amount of blood and the actual death toll by the end really shocked me if I'm perfectly honest too, despite knowing that this had a mature rating. Let's be serious here. Viewers aren't used to seeing blood and gore spilling everywhere as if this is an episode of Invincible on Amazon Prime. (Laughs) It's nowhere as those levels, but this miniseries does it well enough to the point where its not "overdone", y'know? 

Lastly, I think this series, much like Marvel's What If..? before it, should be applauded for going out of its way to cast the existing Marvel Cinematic Universe actors and actresses in these roles (in terms of availability of course) for we can get to see more of them in these long stretches between cinematic releases. Some people see that as a slight since a lot of these characters haven't even had a cinematic debut yet are appearing in these Marvel Animation features, but I see that as a good thing as it raises the anticipation to see these characters in that medium as well. At the same time, we get to see other interpretations, situations, and relationships form between these characters that they haven't been able to explore in live-action yet or if ever. It makes me want to see these characters interact even more no matter the medium. Case in point? Sam Wilson / Captain America and Monica Rambeau / Photon had such a great dynamic in the premiere of the final season of Marvel's What If..? that I'm dying to see that translate and/or carry over into live-action. I mentioned feeling the same way when I saw Kamala interacting with Kate Bishop and Riri Williams in this miniseries. Getting their actual actors and actresses to play these characters in this medium is a great dress rehearsal for testing out how their chemistry would work in live-action. You will never see me frown upon them doing more of this. By the contrary, I encourage more of this. 

Watch It or Don't Bother?

For once, this is a tough question the answer as this miniseries is clearly not made for everyone. Marvel Zombies gets the distinction of being Marvel Studios' first mature-rated animated feature; that's something that would help convince viewers to tune in to see how far would this miniseries go to depict the violence commonly associated with zombie apocalypse narratives. If the "What If... Zombies?!" episode didn't hold your interest, I can't imagine that this will change your mind and make you into a fan. However, those who have not seen any of Marvel's What If..? and went into this blind from my humble recommendation upon their displeasure with a lot of the Multiverse Saga have walked away from this miniseries liking it a lot more than I would have imagined. While it's not great, I think it was interesting and intriguing enough to keep me and most viewers engaged from start to finish. With it being canonical to the events of What If...? makes it even more intriguing as it leaves the door open for further stories in this universe since nothing is really sacred, especially with the twist at the end that what Kamala Khan has been seeing wasn't necessarily true/real. I think fans of the comic book by the same name would be morbidly curious to see what this is all about, but be disappointed that it's not a page by page adaptation from those comics, despite how underwhelming that story panned out before its ending.