Critics Are Split on Marvel Zombies: Is the MCU's Horror Gamble Brilliant or Brain-Dead?

Marvel Zombies is already getting reactions even though it does not drop for a while. The vibe so far: messy, bloody, and kind of fun, with some critics into the chaos and others not buying the tone. In other words, classic MCU experiment territory.

The early buzz (and the numbers)

As of right now, Marvel Zombies is sitting at 71% on Rotten Tomatoes from 17 critic reviews, with an audience score at 85%. That is a solid early read for a four-episode horror spin on the MCU, even if not everyone is fully onboard.

On the positive side, Luke Y. Thompson at Mortal Cinema says the show feels like a proper team-up that actually sets itself up better than whatever Avengers Doomsday might be cooking, and it finally lets certain characters share the screen the way fans have wanted since Shang-Chi entered the chat. Over at Bloody Disgusting, Daniel Kurland calls it gleefully unhinged, a gonzo, out-of-control tilt that mutates Marvel spectacle into a grim dystopia with a real horror streak.

Not everyone is feeling it. Rendy Jones, writing for Roger Ebert, argues the series looks fresh but plays it weirdly safe under the hood. And AV Club’s Jarrod Jones says the show’s heroes and action don’t rise to the level of the apocalyptic madness they are surrounded by, which is a problem when your whole premise is carnage.

What this thing actually is

Marvel Zombies spins out of What If...? Season 1, Episode 5 — the one where an alternate timeline turns the events circling Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018) and Avengers: Infinity War (2018) into a full-blown zombie outbreak. Bryan Andrews directs from a script by Zeb Wells, who is also an executive producer.

Andrews has been teasing that the series is 'more hardcore' and 'pretty wild' on the zombie front, aiming for stuff you did not see in What If...?

Who is back (and who is new)

Big MCU names are returning to voice their characters, plus a few interesting swaps. The Blade voice is not Mahershala Ali here — it is Todd Williams — and Spider-Man is Hudson Thames. Everyone else is pretty much who you expect, with more voices TBA. The roster they are promoting right now includes:

• Elizabeth Olsen as Scarlet Witch/Wanda Maximoff
• Paul Rudd as Ant-Man/Scott Lang
• Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova
• David Harbour as Red Guardian/Alexei Shostakov
• Tessa Thompson as Valkyrie
• Simu Liu as Xu Shang-Chi
• Awkwafina as Katy
• Hailee Steinfeld as Kate Bishop
• Wyatt Russell as U.S. Agent/John Walker
• Randall Park as Jimmy Woo
• Iman Vellani as Ms. Marvel/Kamala Khan
• Dominique Thorne as Ironheart/Riri Williams
• Todd Williams as Blade (replacing Mahershala Ali for this series)
• Hudson Thames as Spider-Man

Release date

Marvel Zombies shambles onto Disney+ on September 24, 2025. Early reviews are out now thanks to screeners, which explains the Rotten Tomatoes scores popping up this far ahead of the premiere.