Marvel Zombies' RT Score Could Destroy Its Season 2 Hopes

1 week ago 11

Zombie Captain America with red eyes from Marvel Zombies animated series

John Dodge has been an avid consumer of comic books and nerd culture for as long as he can remember. An expert on obscure productions from the '80s and '90s, John has too many opinions about Beetleborgs for someone with an active social life.

The following contains spoilers for Marvel Zombies, available for streaming now on Disney+.

The latest entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe may not have made enough of an impact on critics to warrant a second season order on Disney+.

As of the time of writing, the recently released Marvel Zombies limited series holds a 68% "Fresh" rating via review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, as averaged across more than two dozen verified critical reviews. While this does indicate a generally favorable response to the series, it is far from enough to ensure that Marvel Zombies receives a follow-up, especially when its user-generated "Popcornmeter" score sits at a similarly positive if ultimately lackluster 79% approval rating.

Spun out of the events of the episode "What If... Zombies?!" from Season One of What If...?, which itself was loosely based on the fan-favorite Marvel Comics franchise of the same name, Marvel Zombies premiered on Disney+ on Sept. 24 to the delight of MCU fans and horror hounds alike. The series features the voices of numerous MCU stars, including Iman Vellani, David Harbour, Simu Liu, and Florence Pugh in reprisals of their iconic roles as Kamala Khan, Alexei Shostakov, Shang-Chi, and Yelena Belova. Marvel Zombies also marked the MCU debuts of several new voice stars, namely Todd Williams in the role of Eric Brooks, better known as Blade, who also just so happens to have been selected by Khonshu to step into the role of Moon Knight.

Marvel Zombies largely revolves around the few remaining heroes' attempts to save their world from not just the overwhelming hordes of the undead, but also the threat of Wanda Maximoff, now the Queen of the Dead. Over the course of Marvel Zombies' four episodes, audiences get to see just how much damage the Queen of the Dead and her army can do in increasingly gruesome detail, so much so that the series earned a TV-MA rating. Marvel Zombies director Bryan Andrews previously stated, "I think the rating comes from the level of violence and or intensity of the moments that the characters find themselves in." Andrews went on to note that, while "blood gets spilled, and we want to be able to see that," the level of on-screen violence was determined more so from a desire to add emotional weight to specific sequences than it was "about providing just a tremendous amount of gore."

Will There Be Marvel Zombies Season 2?

Moon Knight Blade Holding his sword over half his face from Marvel Zombies animated series

Speaking to CBR, Andrews promised that "there's definitely more to the story" of Marvel Zombies, even if it hasn't received any follow-up orders at Disney+ yet. Andrews went on to say of Marvel Zombies open-ended finale, "We knew we wanted it to be where it seemed like, there was success, but then there's a big question mark. Is there? And in the early stages of our versions that we were putting up, I was keeping it extremely subtle, right? Like really subtle, so people could really debate, ‘Is that a thing?’ But once we got it up on reels, and my editors had some really great suggestions, we decided, ‘You know what? Maybe we should just dip the toe a bit further and see.’ I was really reticent, because I wanted a certain amount of balance. But I think we found the right balance."

Marvel Zombies is currently available for streaming on Disney+.