The Creators of MARVEL ZOMBIES Talk Crafting a Gorier MCU

Back in 2021, during the first season of the animated What If…? series, Marvel fans were introduced to a reality where a zombie apocalypse had decimated the MCU. That episode was loosely based on the comic book Marvel Zombies, by The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman. It proved so popular, Marvel Television has spun it off into its own limited series, also called Marvel Zombies. Before the four episode series drops on September 24, we got the chance to chat with Marvel Zombies EP Bryan Andrews, and the head of Marvel Television, Brad Winderbaum, about this gleefully gory version of the MCU.

Nerdist: This is obviously a very different story from the original Marvel Zombies comic. But were there any moments from the comic you definitely wanted to replicate on screen?

Bryan Andrews: Not so much in this iteration of it. There were a few things that we did as a nod to the comics back in the first season of What If…? But once we had done that, then it’s like, “OK, all bets are off.” On this one, we just went for it. So, if we get a chance to ever do another round of Marvel Zombies? Then you never know what stuff we might homage and borrow from the comics a little bit. Just to acknowledge them. But this one pretty much seems to be its own thing, which is still cool.

Brad Winderbaum: Yeah, I think we definitely had the tone of Robert [Kirkman] writing and Sean Phillips’ amazing art kind of set. You know, it was on our minds a lot. Obviously, we love those books. But also we’re playing off the MCU, while the comics were playing off the classic 616 universe. So, the lore is different, and it’s a different set of rules. However, I will say that tonally, we really were trying to stay in that same vein.

This isn’t really a spoiler, since you showed this footage at D23, but Shang-Chi figures prominently in these episodes. With this being the first time we’ve seen him and Katy since their movie four years ago, was there extra pressure to make sure this first Shang-Chi sequel of sorts did them justice?

Bryan Andrews: Well, I wouldn’t say it was pressure. I would say it was like a gift to us that we got to work with these characters. Yeah, we knew early on that we wanted Sean in there, and a bunch of the peeps that he hangs out with in the San Francisco area. Who knew at the time when we were making it, like how quickly they would or would not do another Shang Chi movie, or any of these types of things. We’re just doing our thing. But working with them is fantastic. We love those characters, and we’re really just glad we can get them in there.

Was there a mandate at all on how bloody this show could be? Because it does go hard, but I wouldn’t say it was excessive either.

Bryan Andrews: Like, I don’t think it’s over the top. That was just a choice for us. Kevin [Feige] was pretty much saying “You guys got this, just be rad.” And so to our taste level, it’s like, “Yeah, we wanted it to be TVMA. And we don’t want to pull any punches.” But also, we don’t want to be gratuitous in that way. Like an adolescent that is just nerding out on the wrong thing and forgetting the storytelling. So we want there to be a good balance, you know? We want the shock value, but we also want the drama and the emotion as well.

Some of the best stuff Marvel Television has put out over the last few years has been animated. Series like X-Men ’97 and Eyes of Wakanda. Are there some Marvel characters that haven’t been done yet in live-action that you think would just work better in animation?

Brad Winderbaum: I don’t know if they work better in animation, but there are some characters I’m excited to explore. And certainly, we could do that with Marvel Zombies. What’s great about it is that when we looked at characters that were on the playing field for us at the beginning of the story, it was like, “Wait a second, it’s Red Guardian, it’s Yelena. You know, it’s Sean, and it’s Katie, it’s Kate Bishop.” It suddenly starts to ignite your imagination into all these amazing avenues with these characters.

And there’s still plenty [of characters] to use. There are number of them. The story originally was much, much larger, and there was no room to put them all in. But we have certain things figured out for what other individuals are doing in other places that were going to factor into the story. But we didn’t want to shortchange their stories by barely acknowledging them, and then having them suddenly show up. So we thought, “Let’s just carve them out.” And we really hope that if we do get a chance to do another one, well, we’ve got a ton of material we’re ready to do as the next thing. So yeah, there are other characters that did not show up in this that we were dying to have. Hopefully, they have their moment in the next one if we get it.

Anyone specific?

Yes, but don’t wanna tell you. Because what we want is to be able to subscribe to Disney+ and find out [laughs]. Demand the next one and the next season. Then we’ll get in and we can surprise you a whole other second time around.

Marvel Zombies arrives on Disney+ on September 24.