Marvel Zombies Show Has Already Made A Disappointing Mistake

While the news of a Marvel Zombies series is exciting, the show has already made a disappointing mistake. Revealed as a new series coming to Disney Plus, Marvel Zombies could serve as a continuation of the story that began in the first season of Marvel’s What If…?, which revealed a world infected by the undead. However, it already feels like the upcoming zombie series could have been so much more.

Revealed during Marvel Studios’ Disney Plus Day 2021 feature, Marvel Zombies was revealed among a plethora of new and previously announced MCU content coming to the streaming platform within the next few years. According to Marvel Studios’ social media outlets, the zombie feature will be an animated original series, no doubt coming off the heels of What If…?’s episode, which likewise featured the Marvel undead and the surviving heroes such as Spider-Man, Hulk, Wasp, Winter Soldier and more desperately trying to find a cure without being eaten themselves. However, the disappointing mistake for this new series lies with the depiction.

While What If…?‘s zombie episode was fun and exciting within the greater animated series that explored different alternate worlds in the multiverse, a dedicated Marvel Zombies series could have been a massive opportunity to do a live-action depiction of one of Marvel’s most beloved alternate universe concepts. While there’s of course something to be said for cost and the potential difficulty of bringing so many heroes together in a live-action setting (undead or otherwise), it still feels like a disappointment that the series will be animated. The concept of an undead zombie Iron Man (similar to what was seen in Spider-Man: Far From Home) would simply be more dynamic as a live-action rendition over an animated one.

Being an animated series instead of live-action, Marvel Zombies would require Marvel Studios to do something fresh and unique in order to avoid feelings of redundancy. While that could take the form of a new animation style, as opposed to what was seen in What If…?, this could also be offering a brand new story of the Marvel undead. While it hasn’t yet been confirmed whether this new series will continue the narrative threads of What If…?’s Marvel Zombies episode as a sequel, it might be better if it’s not. Instead, Marvel Studios could create a new tale with greater creative freedom.

While it makes sense that Marvel Studios is going the animated route for Marvel Zombies, they’ll still have an uphill battle to overcome the (already apparent) disappointment that the show won’t be live-action. While it should still be exciting so long as it’s unique and engaging, it’s hard to not think of what could have been with a concept like a live-action Marvel Zombies.