Marvel Zombies Snubbed the X-Men Despite Storm’s What If…? Debut — Here’s Why

Marvel Zombies is finally shuffling onto Disney+, and yes, it is exactly what it sounds like: the MCU, but with a zombie outbreak. It is also R-rated, which is not nothing for a Marvel animated series. But if you were waiting to see Wolverine slice through the undead or the Fantastic Four roll up in the Fantasti-Car... yeah, not this time.

Quick refresher: what this show is

Director Bryan Andrews and writer Zeb Wells built a four-episode run that plays out in a corner of the multiverse where a zombie virus rips through superheroes. A chunk of the Avengers get infected fast, and the survivors band together to fight the plague and try to find anything that might actually save the planet. It is lean, violent, and not shy about letting heroes go down swinging.

So where are the X-Men and Fantastic Four?

Andrews told Variety he never seriously slotted the X-Men or Fantastic Four into this first season. The short version: multiverse logistics and timing. At the time they were making Marvel Zombies, the new Fantastic Four was still a long way off, and both teams are parked in different corners of the multiverse from the timeline this story uses. Getting them into this narrative would have been a whole thing.

'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.'

Translation: even in a multiverse, there are rules, and smashing those worlds together just because it would be cool comes with headaches Marvel tries not to hand-wave away. Inside baseball, sure, but it tracks with how the animated side has been treating continuity lately.

Could they show up later?

Maybe. Andrews is very much in the 'never say never' camp. If Marvel orders a second season, he already has ideas to get, in his words, extra crazy — which could mean bringing in teams like the X-Men or Fantastic Four once the timing makes sense and the multiversal pathway is less of a migraine.

Who made it and who is in it

Marvel Zombies comes from director Bryan Andrews, co-created with Zeb Wells, and it is now streaming on Disney+.

• Florence Pugh
• Awkwafina
• Elizabeth Olsen
• Iman Vellani
• ...and more