The recent San Diego Comic-Con panel revealed many huge revelations about upcoming projects. One of the most surprising was that Marvel Zombies would be the first animated TV-MA project in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Ever since the series was first revealed years ago, it has excited fans from across the web as a chance to bring the franchise from the comics to the screen.
While the massive franchise is no stranger to experiments, this would be one of their most avant-garde projects. Going fully “mature” has always been a touchy subject for the larger MCU. Here is a rundown of everything audiences need to know about the upcoming Marvel Zombies miniseries.
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According to Collider, the upcoming Disney Plus series Marvel Zombies will be rated TV-MA, the first from Marvel Studios’ animations division. The creators confirmed this new series would be much darker than usual and feature prominent horror elements. Robot Chicken alumnus Zeb Wells will oversee the show, while veteran animator Bryan Andrews will direct. As for its length, the limited series will run for only four episodes.
Iman Velani will return as Kamala Khan and serve as the de facto lead for the show. Other characters such as Wenwu, Shang-Chi, Yelena, Red Guardian, and others were confirmed to appear, yet no other Marvel Zombies cast members were confirmed at the time of writing. While zombies have always been popular, ranging from campy (Shawn of the Dead) to emotional (The Last of Us), the same premise with iconic superheroes will be a novel setup. However, according to one update, Marvel would not release the series “for a while,” and it had no confirmed release date.
This is hardly unusual for them, given the massive backlog of future projects. Fortunately, the same article also stated that the series would possibly arrive in 2024, though this wasn’t officially confirmed. The first look at the characters’ new designs was given in 2022 for those wondering how long the show was on Marvel’s backburner.
What Is Marvel Zombies?
Marvel Zombies is a collection of separate issues published by Marvel Comics for those who aren’t in the loop. As the title implies, these stories follow the Marvel universe, which is invaded by the undead. The original miniseries ran in 2006 and was produced by legendary Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman.
Since then, several other entries have been made into this spinoff. Given the size of Marvel’s infinite multiverse, the stories provided are equally versatile. As shown by the Call of Duty franchise, introducing a zombie spinoff to an IP never fails to spice things up. As for the MCU, Disney Plus has already given fans a small taste of the series.
In 2021’s What If?, one of the episodes focused on a zombie apocalypse brought about by an alternate version of Janet Van Dyne returning from the Quantum Realm. While relatively short, it showcased what an animated rendition of the iconic series would look like. As shown by X-Men ’97, Marvel Studios’ animation division learned a lot since the days of the original What If?
Should the MCU Go Mature?
The MCU stayed at a very soft PG-13 for most of its history. Marvel Zombies creators rarely went beyond occasional profanity, innuendos, and tame amounts of blood. While this helped maintain as broad an audience as possible, it did limit the writers in the long run. However, the series can fully explore the Marvel Zombies franchise with a proper TV-MA rating.
As shown by the recent failure of the Borderlands film adaptation, making a mature property PG-13 can seriously water down the quality of such a production. As such, Marvel made the right choice keeping the Marvel Zombies series mature. One recent example is this year’s Echo. While the series was touted as the first “mature” MCU series, the response was generally lukewarm.
Another example is the phenomenal, billion-dollar success of Deadpool and Wolverine. However, that film should be considered an “exception,” as it was a largely separate project based on the Fox X-Men franchise. Overall, experimenting with new styles has proven risky for Marvel, especially with much of its audience exhausted after two decades. Again, this will be a separate spinoff, so they have room to experiment.
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