MARVEL ZOMBIES Social Media Reactions Reveal Mixed Response To Marvel Animation's WHAT IF...? Spin-Off

MARVEL ZOMBIES Social Media Reactions Reveal Mixed Response To Marvel Animation's WHAT IF...? Spin-Off

Marvel Zombies premieres on Disney+ tomorrow, and the social media embargo has just lifted. While it sounds like a bloody good time for horror fans, the What If...? spin-off is lacking in other areas.

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By JoshWilding - Sep 23, 2025 05:09 AM EST
Filed Under: Marvel Zombies

The social media embargo for Marvel Zombies has lifted, and if you're a fan of What If...? and zombie gore, then it sounds like this series will hit all the right notes.

However, while these early reactions skew more positive than negative, the Marvel Animation series clearly isn't receiving the usual overwhelmingly positive X "reviews" we normally see for a new comic book movie or TV show. 

It seems everyone can agree that the action is where Marvel Zombies excels, with plenty of bloody violence ensuring the series earns its TV-MA rating. Beyond that, it seems many of the same pacing and voiceover issues from What If...? remain, with this show not exactly falling into the same "must-watch" category as X-Men '97 and Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man.

Still, there's obviously fun to be had with Marvel Zombies, especially as Halloween draws near. So, come for the blood and guts, but don't expect to want to stay for the story or performances, both of which are arguably as important as action in a show like this.

Next up for Marvel Animation are second seasons for X-Men '97 and Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man. For the time being, it doesn't appear as if we're getting any more MCU-adjacent projects like this and Eyes of Wakanda. 

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.

Marvel Zombies Director Bryan Andrews Addresses The Show's Ending And What It Means For Season 2 - SPOILERS
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Marvel Zombies Director Bryan Andrews Addresses The Show's Ending And What It Means For Season 2 - SPOILERS
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JoshWilding
JoshWilding - 9/23/2025, 6:34 AM
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bobevanz
bobevanz - 9/23/2025, 12:09 PM
@JoshWilding - nothing will ever top X-Men '97!
Justice for Beau!
Lokiwasright
Lokiwasright - 9/23/2025, 7:19 AM
I haven't seen the trailer yet.
HashTagSwagg
HashTagSwagg - 9/23/2025, 7:28 AM
A show that had infinit possibility that was sadly restrained by the showrunners lack of creativity.
DarthRant
DarthRant - 9/23/2025, 7:32 AM
As long as it's not more window dressing for girl-bossing.
JackDeth
JackDeth - 9/23/2025, 9:06 AM
@DarthRant - What does that mean?
MahN166A
MahN166A - 9/23/2025, 9:46 AM
@JackDeth -

His balls itch when he sees:

-Ellen Ripley
-Sarah Connor
-Aeon Flux
-Princess Leia
-Buffy Summers
-Wonder Woman
-Lara Croft
-The Bride
-LeeLoo (Dallas, Multi-Pass)
JackDeth
JackDeth - 9/23/2025, 9:57 AM
@MahN166A - Right. Heaven forbid a strong woman take the lead, for once.
KennKathleen
KennKathleen - 9/23/2025, 11:14 AM
@DarthRant - User Comment Image
Shivermetimbers
Shivermetimbers - 9/23/2025, 11:50 AM
@MahN166A - The irony that you literally listed only the female action leads that no one complains about. Female lead and "girl boss" can be two completely different things and I think thats what Darth is leaning toward, but I cant read his mind.
MahN166A
MahN166A - 9/23/2025, 5:56 PM
@Shivermetimbers -

Well let’s call a Spade a Spade.

The “girl boss” era stands on the shoulders of the characters I have listed. Because many of the characters I have listed demonstrated through action and words that they were not ones to fall into the typical societal expectation of what a woman was supposed to be in their respective worlds.
I think there is an easy conflation of “girl boss” with misplaced opinions from a small percentage of women who go: “wE dOn’T nEeD mEn!!”

And in turn, men who absorb the media we watch now take that, and apply it to the characters that are being presented and don’t give them a fair shake.
MahN166A
MahN166A - 9/23/2025, 6:15 PM
@JackDeth -

Yeah I personally can’t understand the issue of it, or the claim that there is an “over-saturation” of female leads. I don’t know. I just don’t see it.
JackDeth
JackDeth - 9/23/2025, 7:21 PM
@KennKathleen - Then feel free to explain it.
KennKathleen
KennKathleen - 9/23/2025, 11:23 PM
@JackDeth - User Comment Image

"As long as it's not more window dressing for girl-bossing."

As long as it's not a female led film solely for the sake of saying "Yeeeeah Gurlz!!!", where the plot is garbage juice, the fight scenes are intellectually siphoning, and men are 2 dimensional idiots and/or damsels in distress... with d🍆cks.

I'm all for good female lead entertainment. I thoroughly enjoyed Emily the Criminal, Oh, Hi, the Hunt, Everything Everywhere All At Once, so on and so forth...

Why? Because the stories were interesting, the people in the stories were not complete idiots, and the action didn't get to three stooges level of nonsense.

To me (and @DarthRant - please correct me if I'm wrong) the windows dressing is beautiful setup/synopsis/woman/promotion with a product that is drenched in stupidity, and a vast far cry from anything that you would have wanted to waste time/money on in hindsight...



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JackDeth
JackDeth - 9/23/2025, 11:47 PM
@KennKathleen - You do realize that everything you're talking about is just your opinion right? I say that because any time I hear terms like 'girl-boss' and 'mary sue' and shit it's almost always accompanied by some veiled misogyny from tools who can't possibly understand why someone would want to watch a women in the lead of a film unless the film is 'perfectly written' by their standards. Why are we holding female leads to higher standards than male leads? Think about that.

You want to say, 'I hope the writing is good' I'm right there with you. When you start talking about 'wimmin' ruining things and all that incel shit, you just sound like someone who hates women. So, maybe just save the 'girl boss' shit because when a man acts like a boss, no one calls him a 'man boss' it's just assumed that's how a lead should act, vapid or not.
KennKathleen
KennKathleen - 9/24/2025, 5:19 AM
@JackDeth - I hope you also do realize....

User Comment Image

This IS your opinion.

I said I hope that the wrting is good. Then I gave several examples of stereotypes written in films that have taken me completely out of the story.

If you like it, good for you. However, going by the box office numbers, the masses don't. At least not as much as they once did.

Perhaps it's time to get more coherent writers who give more time to writing good stories. That way all the made up titles will have less room for conversation.
JackDeth
JackDeth - 9/24/2025, 8:39 AM
@KennKathleen - If that were actually the problem, the idea of 'girl-bossing' wouldn't even be brought up. It's easy to say 'writing' after the fact, but when you lead in with 'WIMMIN BAD' we all know what you're actually thinking. And yeah, it is my opinion. It's my opinion that man who blames women for bad writing has a small penis.
Shivermetimbers
Shivermetimbers - 9/24/2025, 10:33 AM
@MahN166A - Yeah I agree with your point. I dont fall into one side or the other on the issue personally. And while I think you make a good point, I also cant ignore the fact that there have been some clear attempts to "girlify" the action genre and they are overdoing it in some cases. It doesn't bother me either way. If something doesn't appeal to me, I don't watch. Simple.
KennKathleen
KennKathleen - 9/24/2025, 11:02 AM
@JackDeth - "It's my opinion that man who blames women for bad writing has a small penis."


🤔😐🤔🫢😐🤭🤣🤣🤣😂😃😏😐.

I belive I gave you my opinion on what someone else is trying to say. I didn't want to respond to the absurdity that you placed above me, but dammit you sparked my curiosity.

If what you say is truly your opinion, does that mean men who praise women for bad writing have large- y'know what- I can't.

If you think a man's ability to decipher treasure v trash storytelling is based solely on the size of his "junk"- you might be focused on the wrong thing.


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JackDeth
JackDeth - 9/24/2025, 11:08 AM
@KennKathleen - I think the concept of 'treasure vs. trash' is not objective and if you think so, you need to grow the [frick] up. End of rant.
KennKathleen
KennKathleen - 9/24/2025, 11:14 AM
@JackDeth - You could've stopped a while back. Your past CBM profiles are starting to show...

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MahN166A
MahN166A - 9/24/2025, 12:27 PM
@Shivermetimbers -

And I also agree with yours. There is definitely cases of overcorrection to try and make a point in certain examples.

Like you, if I see something that I know wouldn’t appeal to me, I don’t waste time or money to make watch it and stay out of the conversation of said media.
JackDeth
JackDeth - 9/24/2025, 12:41 PM
@Shivermetimbers - Define these 'clear attempts' to 'girlify' the action genre. You don't think women can be action leads? Do you not realize that 50% of the planet are women? Shouldn't it make sense that close to 50% of the leads in films should also be women if things were actually equal and fair?
Shivermetimbers
Shivermetimbers - 9/24/2025, 12:58 PM
@JackDeth - If you cant admit that it is happening then I dont see the point in going back and forth about it. I never said they shouldnt be action leads nor did I say that that it wouldnt make sense for women to be close to 50% of the leads in movies. You are jumping to some interesting conclusions. Reminder that I said it doesnt bother me, just acknowledging that it is happening. Have a nice day.
JackDeth
JackDeth - 9/24/2025, 1:04 PM
@Shivermetimbers - You say that, but making the claim and then saying you're not going to explain it is pretty dumb. Just admit you don't have a good reason to say it, because you can't explain it. Give me an example of a film or show that was 'girlified' and tell me why you think so. I'll wait.
Shivermetimbers
Shivermetimbers - 9/24/2025, 1:45 PM
@JackDeth - You'll keep waiting then. I said I am not going to go back and forth about it. If you are interested, you can look up how many action films had female leads in the last decade compared to the previous decade. Have fun.
JackDeth
JackDeth - 9/24/2025, 2:04 PM
@Shivermetimbers - If I look it up and see that more action films have female leads these days, what does that tell me? Does that tell me that women are being added as some kind of 'diversity initiative' or does it tell me that men made all the casting decisions in the movie industry for far too long?
Shivermetimbers
Shivermetimbers - 9/24/2025, 2:15 PM
@JackDeth - it would just tell you that there are more. That was my only point. I made it pretty clear that I don’t care about it or why it is happening, just that there is a far greater occurrence of females in action roles recently. Hence why I said “girlification”. I have two girls myself and some of my favorite movies are led by females. I’m not criticizing, just acknowledging the change. You’re trying to goad the wrong person into in argument because I’m not on a “side” here.
JackDeth
JackDeth - 9/24/2025, 2:46 PM
@Shivermetimbers - Stop pretending the term 'girlification' doesn't have a negative connotation. You just said something you can only explain by sounding sexist, so you gave up on it. Smart move. It's a losing argument.
mountainman
mountainman - 9/23/2025, 7:59 AM
Marvel Zombies could have been epic if not connected to What If at all and actually based on the comic run.

But since this will be handicapped by its What If and larger MCU connections, the expectations are very low.

The best Disney produced animated projects since buying Marvel are X-Men 97 and Your Friendly Neighborhood Spiderman. And it isn’t even close. The rest of their animated output over the last 10 years has been terrible to ok at best, outside of a few episodes of What If that were actually good.
KennKathleen
KennKathleen - 9/23/2025, 11:20 AM
@mountainman - Had they used the Multiverse to give us a glimpse of life post Secret Wars, that would've been a must see.

Show MARVEL Z@MBIES in the pure form, as the comic was created. Imagine Magneto 97 running into an MCU unrestricted by copywrite clauses and IP ownership.

THAT is what we all wanted. That damn hindsight... can hopefully turn into interesting foresight again.
TheVisionary25
TheVisionary25 - 9/23/2025, 8:07 AM
Those reactions seem more mixed-positive moreso then anything but I still hope the actual reviews are better…

However , given that this was originally planned as a film but then cut up into a 4 episode miniseries because they wouldn’t have been able to use Spider Man then it seems about as good of a reception then it could be for something like that so far.

Anyway , the show has looked decent at the least imo so I’ll still definitely give it a shot!!.

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dragon316
dragon316 - 9/23/2025, 8:09 AM
Reviews not important people decide what’s goood not reviews not critic score
TheVisionary27
TheVisionary27 - 9/23/2025, 10:45 AM
@dragon316 - Unfortunately I wish this were true but critic reviews heavily dictate a film’s success that’s why Rotten Tomatoes, IMDB, Metacritic etc are popular sites that people frequently rely on before watching a film.
WEAPONXOXOXO
WEAPONXOXOXO - 9/23/2025, 8:20 AM
Well since it's all fiction and for entertainment, I hope it shows a lot of scenes where women are telling the men what to do for once. It's just so predicable in every movie that we see the man making all the decisions and saving the day.
More women saving the day and being the heroes.

As long as they're still sexy with big tits and an ass that makes you wanna call in sick for the rest of the week.
No fat chicks.
bobevanz
bobevanz - 9/23/2025, 12:12 PM
@WEAPONXOXOXO - there's no [frick]ing way you're in a relationship, and if you are I feel bad for them
WEAPONXOXOXO
WEAPONXOXOXO - 9/23/2025, 12:22 PM
@bobevanz - Don`t feel bad for your mom. I treat her well. I always have a towel ready for her wipe that....
stuff off her face.

It was a joke you [frick]in moron.
Move along.
JackDeth
JackDeth - 9/23/2025, 9:07 AM
I don't think anyone expected it to be ground-breaking. It's just dumb fun !! Sometimes that's enough.
Razorface1
Razorface1 - 9/23/2025, 5:34 PM
@JackDeth - stop excusing bad media. Something can be fun without being dumb. It being dumb is exactly the problem.
JackDeth
JackDeth - 9/23/2025, 7:15 PM
@Razorface1 - Stop telling me what to enjoy. Dumb fun is still fun. Sorry you don't like fun.
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