Marvel Zombies Creates A Massive Problem For The MCU's Young Avengers Plans

This article contains spoilers for "Marvel Zombies" season 1. 

"Marvel Zombies" is a fun and incredibly violent romp through an MCU timeline where Earth has been turned into a zombie wasteland, and an undead but still very powerful Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) aspires to rule as the Queen of the Dead. This, to me at least, is a no-complaints scenario. It doesn't hurt that a very Mahershala Ali-looking Blade (voiced here by Todd Williams) gets ample screen time to flaunt his skills and extreme coolness. 

It's not all slam dunks, though. The Marvel Cinematic Universe has been introducing the comics' Young Avengers left and right for the last few years, increasing its unspoken commitment to put the team together with every new member. However, "Marvel Zombies" seems to take a completely different route, which doesn't do any favors for whatever's left of the MCU's hitherto incredibly obvious plans to put together a Young Avengers team at some point. 

First of all, "Marvel Zombies" demotes Iman Vellani's Ms. Marvel back to the small screen after co-starring in "The Marvels." She, Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld), and Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne) also struggle to find significant screen time as the show's focus often slips toward more established legacy heroes ... and Blade, who gets plenty of attention that's likely meant to promote his (hopefully, some day) impending MCU live-action arrival. Sure, the trio is there, and they do stuff. Kamala is even (very, very) technically the show's main protagonist. But the way they disappear in the background compared to the other heroes — not to mention their relegation to animated alternate-timeline protagonist duty in the first place — makes me suspect that "Marvel Zombies" may be a shambling swan song for any hopes for the Young Avengers.

Apart from Kamala, Kate, and Riri now being sequestered into the animated alt-universe corner of the MCU, there are other signs that Young Avengers may be facing turbulence. The biggest in-universe one is the MCU's most prominent "next-generation" hero — Florence Pugh's Yelena Belova, the MCU's main Black Widow after Scarlett Johansson's Natasha Romanoff. Technically, Yelena doesn't have a Young Avengers connection in the comics, but her initial "replacement character" vibe and interaction with Kate on "Hawkeye" certainly felt like the MCU was taking her in that direction. After Yelena established herself, though, the way the MCU hoisted her away from every possible Young Avengers connection and into the Thunderbolts is telling.

The business side of things isn't looking any better for Young Avengers. As /Film pointed out in 2023, Marvel's high content output diluted the brand, and in 2024, Disney indeed unleashed a new "quality over quantity" initiative, pledging to release fewer MCU movies and TV shows. Combine this with the Fantastic Four's (and, eventually, the X-Men's) arrival, and there are fewer seats at the table than a few years ago. With the Thunderbolts taking over the "new Avengers team" schtick and Young Avengers still at the setup stage, the latter may well become just another plot tease the MCU simply buried.

There's always a chance that "Marvel Zombies" is simply a low-stakes way to see whether the audience is excited to see several Young Avengers prospects interact — perhaps not unlike the 2024 "Worlds of Marvel" show on the Disney Treasure cruise ship, which featured Cassandra Lang (Kathryn Newton), America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez), and Riri. If fans respond positively to these tests, perhaps there's still hope for the Young Avengers.

"Marvel Zombies" is streaming on Disney+.