The Major Change Marvel Zombies Made From The Comics (And Why)

In the world of comic books, dead doesn't always mean dead, and that's especially true for the universe that's gone horribly rotten in Marvel Studios Animation's "Marvel Zombies." The four-part animated series builds on the events seen in the "What If...?" episode "What If... Zombies?!" and follows Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani) from that universe as she fights her way through a world ravaged by a flesh-eating virus that turns the infected into bloodthirsty zombies. The gruesome story is loosely based on the comic series of the same name by Robert Kirkman and  Sean Phillips. However, there's a major difference between the deadly arm-biters in this show and those in the original comic — namely, the characters in the latter have a bit more brains than the ones in the animated series (and we're not talking about the ones they're chomping on).

Speaking to the "Phase Hero" podcast, "Marvel Zombies" co-writer, director, and executive producer Bryan Andrews explained that the zombie infection shown in the animated series is a unique variation that causes various problems for those unlucky enough to contract it. "The comics are great, but because it's a cinematic universe, we didn't want to just grab the comics and adapt the comics since everything's supposed to be spinning off the movies," Andrews explained. "But moving into 'Marvel Zombies' proper, we knew we wanted even a bit more consciousness to some of the zombies. And the way to do that was through Wanda [Maximoff aka Scarlet Witch] and how Wanda can control certain individuals."

In the original "Marvel Zombies" comics, those who join the army of the undead are fully aware that they've been zombified. Moreover, all of their personality traits and understanding of their powers stay the same, resulting in many of your favorite Marvel heroes becoming monstrous and spreading their disease as far as they can, even venturing beyond Earth at one point. In the animated show, on the other hand, the only hero who still has it together is a very unique Wanda Maximoff aka Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen). Indeed, she's able to control the other zombies using her unstoppable powers, which are also connected to her obsession with Ms. Marvel.

What's interesting is that the animated "Marvel Zombies" series has already demonstrated that the virus, as deadly as it is, can be kept under control thanks to the Ten Rings possessed by Shang-Chi (Simu Liu), which prevent the infection from spreading throughout his body. With that in mind, and given the uncertainty around the show's future after the way the first season of "Marvel Zombies" ended, it's possible a future season of the series could see the virus evolve once again, giving rise to a different kind of undead that might be a little smarter. For now, let's just be glad that the scariest things in this universe are still mindless, shuffling clods and not much more.

"Marvel Zombies" is currently streaming on Disney+.