Marvel Zombies is now streaming on Disney+, and if you walked away a little confused by how the show ends, then you likely aren't alone. In this article, we'll take a deep dive into how the latest Marvel Animation series wraps up and what it may mean for the future.
Heading into the finale, Ms. Marvel's mission to bring the Nova Corps to Earth fails when it's revealed that the intergalactic police force has already quarantined the planet. That leaves the remaining heroes to seek out the help of the Infinity Hulk—he absorbed the power of the destroyed Infinity Stones when Black Panther defeated Thanos—and make one last stand against the Scarlet Witch.
The Dead Queen, as she's now known, has managed to gain some level of control over her zombie infection and wishes to use the combined power of the Infinity Stones and Kamala Khan to reshape the world.
Our heroes do their best, but soon find themselves overwhelmed by the Scarlet Witch and her zombie horde. One by one, they fall, leaving Ms. Marvel with no other choice but to give in to Wanda rather than have everything they've fought for be for nothing.
We never learn what the Dead Queen has planned for the world, but between Kamala's power and the downed Hulk, the former Avenger gets her way and cryptically declares, "So the world begins again."
Kamala wakes up at home and finds a resurrected Kate Bishop and Riri Williams at her door. She remembers the past five years, but her friends don't, and it appears Wanda really has fixed the world. However, as the teenager sits there, she starts getting flashes of the zombie apocalypse around her, bathed in a sinister red light.
The real Riri, fighting off a group of zombies, then appears before Ms. Marvel, imploring her to wake up because none of what she's seeing is real. Despite her apparent demise in the first episode, it seems F.R.I.D.A.Y. made good on her promise not to let another hero fall and saved Ironheart (who, you may recall, injected herself with a mysterious formula that may have stopped her from being infected/fooled by Wanda's illusion).
The finale ends with the camera frozen on Kamala's horrified face, but what does this all mean? It's never made clear. If the Scarlet Witch rewrote reality into being a world ruled over by the undead, who do they eat? Does everyone see an illusion like Kamala's, despite being zombies?
It's safe to assume that the undead Wanda is in even less control than her Earth 616 counterpart, so it's not outside the realm of possibility that her plan to begin the world anew failed.
The ending is open to interpretation, though we do believe this is a WandaVision-inspired world, where Wanda has succumbed to the zombie virus but given everyone the illusion of a better life in an attempt at mercy. (a more twisted possibility is that it's to stop the living from resisting her). Ultimately, the ending feels like a pretty blatant way to leave the door open to a second season, but we'll see.
Marvel Zombies is now streaming on Disney+ in its entirety.