In the first season of What If...?, an episode appropriately titled "What If... Zombies?!" saw us visit a reality where a world not unlike Earth 616 had been ravaged by a zombie plague.
The response to that led to Marvel Television greenlighting a spin-off series, the four-episode Marvel Zombies. That premieres on Disney+ next week, and a second season is already being tentatively planned....provided fans tune into this first batch of episodes.
In a new interview, Brad Winderbaum, Head of Streaming, Television and Animation at Marvel Studios, revealed, "Please, like, people have got to subscribe to Disney+ and watch this show. If that happens, they will get more. And we are excited. We’re ready."
As for how the series could evolve moving forward, the executive pointed to the comics. "We had a lot of freedom, you know, in development in terms of characters we could use or where we wanted to explore. But there were certain lore considerations."
"What Robert [Kirkman] and Sean [Phillips] did in that original book, it kind of branched off from what Mark Millar was doing. It was just a different time in the comics, a different universe. We were branching off of 616, sorry, of the MCU version of 616. The pieces on the board were in different places for us to start the story."
"That lore is very rich and expansive, and Bryan [Andrews] and I nerd out all the time about other characters and other things that are happening in the universe at the same time," he teased, "and where we would explore if we were so lucky to make a second season."
Marvel Studios has found two bona fide hits in X-Men '97 and Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, but the What If...? concept already feels pretty tapped out. Marvel Zombies certainly looks like a fun ride, but whether the concept needs to be explored beyond that will really hinge on how fans respond to the show.
At this point, it seems Marvel Studios will only move forward with additional seasons of shows like this one if viewership is high enough. With such a last-minute marketing campaign and zombies no longer at the height of their popularity, we'll have to wait and see.
In Marvel Zombies, after the Avengers are overtaken by a zombie plague, a desperate group of survivors discovers the key to bringing an end to the super-powered undead, racing across a dystopian landscape and risking life and limb to save their world.
The series will feature the voices of Elizabeth Olsen (Scarlet Witch), Paul Rudd (Ant-Man), Florence Pugh (Yelena Belova), David Harbour (Red Guardian), Tessa Thompson (Valkyrie), Simu Liu (Shang-Chi), Awkwafina (Katy), Hailee Steinfeld (Kate Bishop), Wyatt Russell (U.S. Agent), Randall Park (Jimmy Woo), Iman Vellani (Ms. Marvel) and Dominique Thorne (Ironheart), among others.
Marvel Zombies was created by Bryan Andrews and Zeb Wells. The series is executive produced by Kevin Feige, Louis D’Esposito, Brad Winderbaum, Dana Vasquez-Eberhardt, Bryan Andrews and Zeb Wells, and is produced by Danielle Costa and Carrie Wassenaar.
Run, lurch, but definitely don’t walk to Disney+ on September 24 to catch the four-episode Marvel Zombies.