TV Review: ‘Marvel Zombies’ Wastes a Fun Concept

In the ever-expanding Marvel Cinematic Universe, one of the most highly anticipated animated projects was Marvel Zombies, an adaptation of one of the most popular comic crossover events, in which familiar Marvel Characters were transformed into zombies. This TV-MA animated spinoff series followed up on the events of the fifth episode of the first season of What If…?, where The Watcher (Jeffrey Wright) observes a world in which most of the heroes protecting the world have been transformed into flesh-eating creatures. The show is set five years after those events, where the world has further collapsed into an irreparable and ever-growing zombie apocalypse.

In a sense, this feels like the perfect opportunity for Marvel Animation (and, by extension, Marvel Studios, which has dipped its toes into adult-skewed entertainment since the release of Echo last year) to showcase its capabilities in offering projects that appeal to a broad audience, and not just families. Deadpool & Wolverine proved that an R-rating does not necessarily impede financial success, and Daredevil: Born Again stretched the limits of its TV-MA certification in the final episode, where Kingpin crushes the police commissioner’s head with his bare hands. Even the Netflix show didn’t go that far. It was slightly cartoonish, sure, but it still pushed the limits of just how violent this series can get.

Even though Marvel Zombies is an animated offering and leans into the cel-shaded 3D characters with 2D backdrops style developed in What If…?, director Bryan Andrews and showrunner Zeb Wells have the golden opportunity to genuinely set it apart and visualize a nasty, hyper-violent world where no one – not even the strongest of Avengers – is invincible. The zombie virus, we understand, has propagated itself so quickly that most humans have now been turned into undead creatures that can’t necessarily die, since the bite ensures that its disease will live on even after one zombie’s head is chopped off or their limbs are severed. It’s even worse when you realize that there’s nothing the protagonists can do to stop the spread. They’re essentially condemned to die in a desolate world currently eating itself alive. 

Yet, in saying all of this, I was shocked by how there’s barely any gore or actual thrills in a show that’s surprisingly restrained in wanting to be “TV-MA” and is instead following in the same footsteps as the “Saturday Morning Cartoon” vibes of What If…?, but with a slight edge in its violence. The “slight edge” usually occurs when some limbs are crushed or blood pours out of a creature’s head when it is removed from its body, but it’s nowhere near as “insane” as the marketing will lead you to believe. It’s TV-MA in name only, but there’s nothing genuinely “adult” about the show. Remove the occasional gore, and you’ve got another kiddie offering that seems very much in line with the Saturday Morning Cartoon vibes of What If…?

Worse yet, the “TV-MA” action is painfully boring. There are a few bursts of creative battles, most notably one occurring in the final episode involving Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) and an “Infinity” variant of a popular character that won’t be spoiled here, alongside every setpiece involving Blade (Todd Williams), who, Wesley Snipes variant from Deadpool & Wolverine aside, finally makes his MCU debut, in this universe as Moon Knight, the avatar of the Egyptian God Khonshu (F. Murray Abraham).

Mahershala Ali does not voice Blade, but the character is undoubtedly designed to his likeness, which makes the production troubles of the (probably not) upcoming Blade film all the more frustrating. Still, the character is the main reason why I stuck watching this four-episode “series” (if we can call it that), which doesn’t offer much beyond occasional moments of fun action that are immediately hampered by the horrendous writing Wells is most known for. For example, whenever something “crazy” happens – i.e., a variation of a hero killing a zombie in the most over-the-top way – a character will immediately quip with their own version of “Well…that just happened,” or, more aptly, “Oh my god! That was so gross!” as if the kill itself cannot be sold on its own. 

It makes the bloodletting less impactful, and the catharsis of watching a zombie-driven Marvel title almost nonexistent. Even the painfully undercooked story, which tracks a version of the Young Avengers, comprised of Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani), Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld), and Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne), as they attempt to contact the Nova Corps to help them rid themselves of the zombie plague, doesn’t inspire much excitement or active character growth. It may be because the series barely has time to breathe – or develop – anything it introduces, since it consists of only four incredibly short episodes. 

The format worked well enough for Eyes of Wakanda, since this was an anthological telling of Wakandan heroes throughout different periods of history, but not so much when you’re attempting to craft a crossover event with plenty of significant MCU characters, which include Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), Aleksei Shostakov (David Harbour), Shang-Chi (Simu Liu), Katy (Awkwafina), Jimmy Woo (Randall Park), John Walker (Wyatt Russell), Scott Lang (Paul Rudd), Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson), F.R.I.D.A.Y. (Kerry Condon), and Spider-Man (Hudson Thames). Most of these characters die or get turned into zombies, which could be fun if the series didn’t adopt such a self-serious tone and allowed a bit more attachment to the protagonists before the story is quickly flipped or audience expectations are subverted. 

None of the deaths or zombie transformations hit on an emotional level, because the story being told here is entirely inconsequential. Such is the nature of multiverse-driven films and television series, where only a handful of titles have actually done something creative or emotionally impactful with a concept of infinite possibilities (see Peacemaker – Season 2 as a most recent example). 

In Marvel Zombies, there’s key jangling and very little moment-to-moment anchors with any of the characters we spend time with in the four episodes. It makes any sequence where something significant occurs fall flat because our understanding of how the protagonists operate in this desolate environment is limited. We also barely have time to sit with the characters as they contemplate whether or not this consuming world is worth saving. Of course, we want to root for them, because the core of any Marvel story is to see how the heroes will triumph, but if we can’t latch onto the people we’re going to spend two hours with (yes, that’s the duration of the show…), how do you expect us to care when someone bites the dust (usually by sacrificing themselves, count the number of characters who stay behind to protect the ones moving forward) or turn into zombies?

It’s not all bad, of course, and most of the voice cast seems to have fun. Unpredictably so, Iman Vellani gives the best vocal turn of the show, perfectly embodying the effervescence of Kamala Khan just like she did in her own television show and in Nia DaCosta’s The Marvels. She’s also the character with the most development, since the series focuses on the temptation she may have in joining forces with the Scarlet Witch, and wraps up with an open-ended coda that’s more confounding than satisfying, a bit like Ironheart’s unearned cliffhanger conclusion. Of course, this is to open the door to a potential second season, but if the first isn’t as complete as it should be, what’s the point?

Fans who wanted to see a zombiefied version of Wanda Maximoff may also be disappointed, since the show rarely gives a reason for the audience to care about the heroes going head-to-head with a seemingly invincible villain that, on paper, sounds menacing enough, but isn’t even in the show as much as she should. Her presence is omniscient until the third episode, where she pulls the rug out of the heroes’ eyes, but that’s about the only time we get to see the extent of her power, since it quickly gets into climax mode and wraps up absolutely nothing when the show ultimately reaches its final scene. 

Still, there is good news for fans who have been clamoring for Marvel to do away with their “movie”-structured television series: Marvel Zombies is the last of their shows from the previous mandate of making miniseries that look and feel like a movie as opposed to, I dunno, actual television?? Perhaps if a second season were to arise, it would contain more (and longer) episodes, proper character development, and violence that fully leans into its TV-MA rating. Daredevil: Born Again certainly proved to them that they can do it and still retain a core public. Marvel Zombies almost seems afraid of leaning hard in its rating, almost like it doesn’t deserve it in the first place. And if you don’t want to do what your comics did and go all in, one has to ask: Who is this for?

SCORE: ★★