Why Marvel Zombies Changed Its First, Inception-Inspired Season Finale Ending

One thing that's clear about "Marvel Zombies" is that it isn't afraid to get bloody. The six-episode animated series spent most of its runtime pulling the insides of some of our favorite Marvel characters outside in very gory (but honestly, cool) fashion. It was a relief, then, when in the show's final episode, Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani) managed to make it out alive and back to the land of the living ... until she learned her world turned out to be dead.

Ms. Marvel's dream was briefly shattered when she saw through the illusion and realized that the world she left behind was still deadlier than ever. According to the show's creator, however, the big reveal was initially meant to be much more ambiguous, similar to a Christopher Nolan classic and one of his best films, until they decided to clarify it. 

"'Inception,' it's so subtle because it makes you wonder, is he still in a dream? Like, is he still screwed?" said "Marvel Zombies" writer, director, and executive producer Bryan Andrews during an interview with Brandon Davis of the Phase Hero podcast, comparing the 2010 film that had more dreams than dead people walking around. "The version I was doing it was so subtle, like we didn't show anything. It was just a hint of doubt, or a sound, or just a thought process, and she realizes she made a mistake and maybe voices that out loud to her friends because there was something off, something really subtle." It was only after an intense review that a balance was found that teed up a different but delicate dead giveaway.

With only a hint of horror established in the original closing moments of "Marvel Zombies," time started setting in for Andrews and the other creatives behind the scenes, who eventually decided that things might need to finish with a little more bite. "Then with our awesome editors and stuff, we were looking at the material, relooking at the material, it's living with you for a while, and it's like, 'Yeah, we should do more.' And I think the first ideas were just way more."

After much deliberation, a solution was eventually found, as described by Andrews as "a kernel of an idea" that found its way onto the screen. "So we found the happy medium, which was just fantastic. Like, I think someone mentioned, 'What if Riri is the voice she hears on the wind, or she pops out of a portal door behind her, like, 'Hey man, everything's all messed up?' Like it was not quite right, but it was the right direction."

While that idea was refined, the direction of where it was meant to go after is unknown. There's still no confirmation on whether a second season of "Marvel Zombies" could be marching onto Disney+ somewhere down the line, but the cliffhanger that it left us on was certainly brilliantly handled. We hope we get one; otherwise, Kamala will be stuck in a life-or-death limbo for a very long time.