Marvel’s animated seriesWhat If…?is about to debut on Disney+, which will air bite-sized episodes telling a different, alternate story every week. An endless list of characters from the Marvel Cinematic Universe will be returning, as well as the actors who play them, including Bucky Barnes, Agent Carter and Thanos.
While some aspects ofWhat If…?will be familiar, other additions will seem somewhat foreign, including theMarvel Zombiesnarrative. One episode of the series will explore the limited comic series in animated form, turning some of our favorite superheroes into the walking dead. These alternate stories are contained within the series for now, but could some concepts expand into the live-action MCU at some point in the future?
Marvel Zombies
Marvel Zombiesis a five-issue comic book series written by none other thanThe Walking Deadcreator Robert Kirkman. With artwork supplied by Sean Phillips and cover art illustrated by Arthur Suydam,Marvel Zombies’ narrative exists in an alternate universe, and the idea of it came from the crossover arc within the Mark Millar and Brian Michael Bendis comicUltimate Fantastic Four.
The limited series depicts a world where the superheroes we have come to know and love have been infected with a virus that turns them into zombies.Marvel Zombiesacts as a loose spinoff to theUltimate Fantastic Fournarrative, where Ultimate Reed Richards is deceived into opening a portal to the zombie universe by his undead counterpart. Zombie variants of the world’s heroes reside on Earth-2149 in the multiverse, and the series also features Galactus.
Marvel Comics
Could We See a Live-ActionMarvel ZombiesMovie?
What If…?head writer A.C. Bradley previously stated that the series' animated form relieved the team of creative barriers - because anything can exist in animated form. This inspired Bradley and executive producer Brad Winderbaum to include theMarvel Zombiesnarrative in an episode, but could this premise work in a live-action setting?
Winderbaum spoke toInverseabout expanding the series’ storylines in the MCU, because there is an abundance of great material that shouldn’t be contained to one episode. The producer confirmed that Marvel is very open to expanding these chapters in the future, which does not rule out a live-action adaptation ofMarvel Zombies.
The concept could be a large pill to swallow when it’s set in a more realistic environment, but a one-off feature could absolutely work. Fans will no doubt want to argue about its place in the MCU timeline, but when a story is set within the multiverse, anything can happen.
