SPOILER ALERT: This article contains spoilers for “Marvel Zombies,” now streaming on Disney+.
The MCU is embracing blood and gore once again — this time in the animated universe.
“Marvel Zombies,” an undead spinoff from “What If…?,” is Marvel’s first M-rated animated series, following live-action, R-rated hits like “Deadpool & Wolverine” (in theaters) and “Daredevil: Born Again” (on Disney+). Bryan Andrews directed the Season 1 episode of “What If…?” that introduced a horrifying Quantum Realm virus that turns nearly everyone in the world into shambling zombies, including many beloved superheroes. With “Marvel Zombies,” which continues the story, Andrews ratchets up the viscera and dismemberment as the rating goes from TV-14 to TV-MA.
Several heroes and villains return from the “What If…?” episode, like Spider-Man (voiced by Hudson Thames), the disembodied head of Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) and zombie versions of Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen), Thanos and more. Recent MCU additions, like Ms. Marvel (Iman Vellani), Red Guardian (David Harbour), Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) and Shang-Chi (Simu Liu), also get some major screen time. One character even gets his MCU introduction before his live-action debut: the day-walking vampire Blade. He comes with a slight caveat, though; the “Marvel Zombies” hero is actually an amalgamation of Blade and Moon Knight, with no relation to Mahershala Ali’s version of the character that’s still waiting to make his big-screen debut. (The character is voiced instead by Todd Williams.) For eagle-eyed viewers, Blade Knight made a brief appearance in the “What If…?” series finale last year.
With Variety, Andrews discusses creating Blade Knight, why the Fantastic Four and X-Men are absent from the show, why “Marvel Zombies” was almost a movie, and what his plans are for a possible Season 2.
When did you first get the idea to do a spinoff of the “What If…?” Season 1 zombie episode?
It was early on, once it was decided that we’re gonna be doing “What If…?” Kevin Feige was a fan of the comics and the zombie genre in general. Way early on, Kevin had said something to [Marvel animation executive] Brad Winderbaum, who then said to us, “We’re totally doing a zombie thing!” It was almost one of the reasons to even do “What If…?” — so that we could do an episode that was zombies. We found a place in time, right around [the events of] “Infinity War,” because it provided a number of heroes that were out and about. Kevin loved it, so it was like we should be doing a bigger thing and explore this world a little bit more.
Did you know this would be Marvel’s first M-rated, animated show? How did you convince them to let you murder all those superheroes?
We made the blood darker zombie goo so we could get away with that type of stuff to make [the “What It…?” episode] TV-14. When the decision was to do it straight-up and make it a bigger story, well, it’s gotta be TV-MA. Brad, Kevin and the rest were like, “Oh, hells yeah.” They were thinking the same thing. You don’t want to have to keep pulling punches. You want to be able to go for it, really create something within that genre and do it justice. Everyone was down for that, thankfully.
We self-police ourselves pretty well. I’m down for the insanity, but I also don’t want it to be gratuitous in a tasteless sense. There’s a right way and a wrong way. It’s not like you look at all the guts and linger on the shot for 12 minutes. There’s no reason for that. If we were going to get a chance to do another one, which would be awesome, there are certain things I would push further at times. For this one, we wanted to make sure the story was there and all the action and violence you can enjoy, but it doesn’t become only about that.
How did you choose Kamala Khan, aka Ms. Marvel, to follow as the primary character?
It came from trying to do something a little different than “What If…?,” where there are a lot of these powerful, big characters that we know. We wanted to be able to start with some young blood and new peeps who, because of that timeframe in MCU history that we chose, have not elevated themselves yet. They don’t know how to do this and they’re learning as they go during a zombie apocalypse. It gives them something to learn. We get to point out their naïveté and their hopeful, youthful, wide-eyed, bushy-tailed-ness. Can they stand against the onslaught of horribleness? Can they come out unscathed, or what would the scars be? They seemed primely placed to do that and then allow other individuals to come in and have our ensemble grow and change.
We wanted it to be pretty epic, and there was so much story we couldn’t put it all in. So there’s stuff going on with other characters that aren’t even in this that we know what’s going on with them, and we would love to tell those stories. It started feeling like “Lord of the Rings” in that we wanted it to be this history that was bigger than the audience was aware of, with events happening off camera. As a result, we started thinking of Kamala like Frodo, where this fellowship can gather around her on this crazy journey since she was ill-prepared at the time. To do the zombie movie, we started thinking about it like a fantasy or like a Dungeons and Dragons campaign.
This is the first time since “The Marvels” that we’re seeing Ms. Marvel, and she’s with Riri Williams, aka Ironheart, and Kate Bishop’s Hawkeye as the Young Avengers. We also see the Thunderbolts after they debuted earlier this year. Were there any restrictions on how you could use these characters?
It was pretty open. It was early on when we started developing this. Some of those shows hadn’t even come out yet. “Ironheart” was a ways away when we started, but we knew it was coming and they seemed like exciting, fun, young characters to play with. Because this is its own little pocket side universe, and it’s early in their superhero careers, there wasn’t that much worry. All we needed to know was who they were early on, even before those shows started, so there’s that thread of cohesiveness. We never got them in the booth to record together, but when they got the material, they’re like, “Wait, so we’re all, like, a thing?” They, separately on their own, were super-excited that their animated avatar was hanging out with the other gals. It was so fun to watch them nerd out about that.
Why didn’t you use any characters from the Fantastic Four or X-Men?
I would have loved to have them in, but at the time, “Fantastic Four” was so far off. They’re also in a different multiverse. Same with the X-Men. How would they get here? So there are all those questions and rigmarole. But, I mean, never say never. That’s why I’m hoping, if there’s a second season around, there are already a few ideas of, like, can we get extra crazy? So who knows, but it would be amazing, and it gives us just more opportunities for more zombies and crazy heroes to go down swinging.
Blade makes his official MCU debut as Blade Knight, but he was teased in the “What If…?” Season 3 finale very briefly. Did you know back then that you wanted to introduced him?
We did Season 3 of “What If…?” and “Zombies” basically concurrently. Because “Agatha” came out on a particular Halloween, “Zombies” was actually ready to come out then. But they were like, “Oh shit, we don’t want to have one eat the other attention-level-wise, and it’s a big deal to do ‘Agatha’ so let’s hold ‘Zombies.’” Everyone’s seeing it now, but it’s actually been waiting in the wings to come out. When it came time to do all those images at the end of Season 3, we were like “fuck yeah!” It’s a little bit of a tease that something was coming.
Pretty early, it wasn’t going to be Blade. We already knew immediately it was going to be Blade Knight. We also didn’t know that we were going to come out before a Blade movie. When we’re doing the animated stuff and they’ve got a live-action property at the same time, it’s really difficult because you have to be beholden to what they’re doing with that character in live-action. Sometimes they’re figuring it out, and we’re like, “We gotta go with this thing. We need the decision now.” It’s really hard, so we didn’t want to deal with Blade because there was this script, that script, whatever. Like, what are they even doing? We don’t even know. If we did Blade Knight, that completely separates it from whatever they’re doing in the movie and makes it our own and it’s rad. Blade, the Fist of Khonshu, was early on and so natural. It was perfect to have him pair up with our young protagonist that has no idea what the heck they’re doing. It really created this great way for to work him in.
Have you gotten any feedback on Blade Knight and if his character may influence the live-action Blade?
I have no idea when they’re planning Marvel-wise. I know Kevin digs this and Blade Knight. I like the response that the fans are giving off the trailer, even that one little fight people are nerding out over. I love it when they say, “Hey, if the live-action isn’t as good as this, then what’s the point?” That makes me really happy. People are responding exactly how I wanted them to respond. It would be great if that could influence the movie in some way, because I feel the same way. If the live-action movie doesn’t feel as badass that one little moment, then what’s the hell is the point?
If you have all these ideas for more stories, why’d you only get four episodes to work with?
Time and money, man. It’s “Hey, this is all you got.” We’re like, “Oh shit! All right.” We were creating a thing and didn’t know what the limit was going to be. Then they’re like, “Oh no, no, guys.” Then we thought, “Well, let’s make it a movie.” We were going to make it a movie and have it released. It should be an epic, it’s gonna be two, two and a half hours long. It’s gonna be amazing. But, there were contractual issues because of Spider-Man in it. So, there are Sony rules that come into play. We were like, “Oh shit, that’s a thing? Oh no, okay, I guess we can’t do that.” So we broke it up. Now, it plays like four chapters in a book. Even with the four chapters, it would have been awesome if we had more time to make each installment a little bit longer, just so we could milk those quiet moments a bit longer. We tried to put it in as much as possible, and it moves at a breakneck pace. We put in those moments of stillness and reflection as best we could. Maybe next time around, if everyone loves it enough and yells online enough to demand more, maybe they’ll give us more time and more money.
It sounds like there’s enough material for a second season.
So much material. It’s crazy. There are other characters that people are like, “So-and-so is not even in it.” Yeah, we know. We know what’s going on. We know how people got from A to B. You guys have no idea the insanity that’s just waiting around the corner if we get a chance. Brad and I already know how the next one would start already. Our original idea was more medieval fantasy. It was set so far after the different kingdoms, fiefdoms and ruling factions have grown. Some of our old guard would be old. We were doing crazy shit. Brad wisely said people want to see their favorites and not see them so crazy. We rolled it back and didn’t time-jump so far forward.
That sounds like the “What If…?” episode set in 1602. Are there any other episodes from that series that you’d want to expand?
We love the Shang-Chi Western in Season 3. My original idea for that was far crazier and bigger and incorporated Captain America and Falcon and Nick Fury. That world could be ripe, where you take all the Marvel stuff and put it through a Western lens. It could be one. There are a number of “What If…?” episodes that were A+ ideas that Kevin loved, but there are just too many great episodes to put in a season, so some of those get left to the side for other future seasons. There was one that was going to be D&D. It’s basically Marvel superhero D&D. It was going to follow a group of C-level characters, maybe some of them not even superheroes, as if they’re first-level characters, and they’re trying to go on this big adventure that’s a 20th-level module. You see your A-level heroes going off to do the thing, but these idiots want to do it anyway and they Forrest Gump their way into the ending before the other heroes get the ending. So they get all the cool, powerful weapons and level up and then save the other team who’s fighting the big boss and losing. It could have been so great and nerd out over all that RPG lore and mix in all the Marvel stuff with it.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
