‘Marvel Zombies’ Originally Developed As Animated Film – But Plans Changed Thanks To Spider-Man
In a stark reminder that the Marvel Cinematic Universe is unfortunately less organic in its storytelling than even Marvel Comics’ current output, Marvel Zombies showrunner Bryan Andrews has revealed that while he originally intended for the undead outing to be released as a full-length animated film, he was unfortunately forced to develop it as a Disney Plus series in order to follow-up on Spider-Man’s story.
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Andrews, who previously directed a number of What If…? episodes including What If…Zombies?, provided this Sony-related insight into Marvel Zombies‘ behind-the-scenes production during a post-premiere interview given to Variety‘s Jordan Moreau.
Asked by his host as to “why’d you only get four episodes to work with?”, the showrunner admitted that the reason for his limited time with the MCU’s undead was that classic, age old roadblock of “Time and money, man” – in particular the amount of each needed to license the screen rights to the aforementioned web-slinger from their current owner, Sony:
“It’s ‘Hey, this is all you got.’ We’re like, ‘Oh shit! All right.’ We were creating a thing and didn’t know what the limit was going to be. Then they’re like, ‘Oh no, no, guys.’
“Then we thought, ‘Well, let’s make it a movie.’ We were going to make it a movie and have it released. It should be an epic, it’s gonna be two, two and a half hours long. It’s gonna be amazing. But, there were contractual issues because of Spider-Man in it. So, there are Sony rules that come into play.
“We were like, ‘Oh shit, that’s a thing? Oh no, okay, I guess we can’t do that.’ So we broke it up. Now, it plays like four chapters in a book. Even with the four chapters, it would have been awesome if we had more time to make each installment a little bit longer, just so we could milk those quiet moments a bit longer.
“We tried to put it in as much as possible, and it moves at a breakneck pace. We put in those moments of stillness and reflection as best we could. Maybe next time around, if everyone loves it enough and yells online enough to demand more, maybe they’ll give us more time and more money.”
On the subject of more Marvel Zombies, Andrews was then met the observation from Moreau that “it sounds like there’s enough material for a second season”, to which the showrunner confirmed, “So much material. It’s crazy.”
“There are other characters that people are like, ‘So-and-so is not even in it.’ Yeah, we know. We know what’s going on. We know how people got from A to B. You guys have no idea the insanity that’s just waiting around the corner if we get a chance. Brad and I already know how the next one would start already.
“Our original idea was more medieval fantasy. It was set so far after the different kingdoms, fiefdoms and ruling factions have grown. Some of our old guard would be old. We were doing crazy shit. Brad wisely said people want to see their favorites and not see them so crazy. We rolled it back and didn’t time-jump so far forward.”
As noted by Andrews, the fate of Marvel Zombies currently remains up in the air, with series co-creator and Marvel Television head Brad Winderbaum telling ComicBook.com, “Please, like, people have got to subscribe to Disney+ and watch this show. If that happens, they will get more. And we are excited. We’re ready.”
