Spoiler Alert: This article contains spoilers for “Marvel Zombies.”
The MCU is once again embracing blood and gore – this time in animated universe.
“Marvel Zombies” is an undead spinoff from “What if…?”, Marvel’s first M-rated animated series, following R-rated hits like “Deadpool & Wolverine” (Theatre) and “Daredevil: Born” (Disney+). Brian Andrews directed the first episode of “What if…?” It introduced a terrifying quantum territory virus that turns almost everyone in the world into embarrassing zombies, including many beloved superheroes. In “Marvel Zombies,” the story continues, Andrews ratchets the internal organs and amputations as the TV-14 will be graded to TV-MA.
Several heroes and villains return from “How can I do this…” episodes such as Spider-Man (voiced by Hudson Thames), the unembodied Ant-Man (Paul Rudd), the zombie version of Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen), and Thanos. Recent MCU additions such as Ms. Marvel (Iman Vellani), Red Guardian (David Harbor), Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), and Shang-chi (Simu Liu) also get some big screen times. One character can get an introduction to the MCU before his live-action debut: The Day Walking Vampire Blade. However, he has a slight attention. The heroes in “Marvel Zombie” are actually a fusion of Blade and Moon Knight, and have nothing to do with the character in the Mahershala Ali version. (The character is voiced instead by Todd Williams.) For Eagle’s eye viewers, Blade Knight was a simple appearance in “What if…?” Last year’s series finale.
In Variety, Andrews discusses the creation of Blade Knight, why the Fantastic Four and the X-Men are missing from the show, why “Marvel Zombies” is almost a film, and his possible plans for season 2.
When did you get the idea to first spin-off of “what if…?”? Season 1 Zombie episode?
“What if…?” Kevin Feige was a fan of the manga and zombie genres in general. Early on, Kevin was saying something to (Marvel Animation Executive) Bloodwinderbaum. “What if?” – Now you can run episodes that are zombies. We found a place of time around “Infinity War” (events) because it provided many heroes who were out. Kevin loved it, so it seemed we should have done something bigger and explored this world a little more.
Did you know that this will become an animation show at Marvel’s first M-rate? How did you persuade them to kill all these superheroes?
We made a dark bloody zombie goo, so we can make that kind of thing (“What It…?” episode) TV-14. When the decision was to do it straight and make it a bigger story, it had to become a television. Brad, Kevin, the rest was like, “Oh, yes.” They were thinking the same thing. You don’t have to keep pulling punches. You want to go for it and really make something within that genre and make it justice. Thankfully, everyone was down for that.
We self-politicize ourselves quite well. I’m down for the insanity, but I don’t want it to be free in a tasteless sense. There are the right and the wrong way. That doesn’t mean you’ll see all the courage and stay on the shot for 12 minutes. There is no reason for that. If we’re going to get the chance to do something else, that’s great, there are certain things that I sometimes push even more. For this, we wanted to see the story there and all the actions and violence you could enjoy, but that’s not the only thing.
How did you choose Marvel’s Kamala Khan?
It came from trying to do something a little different from “what if…?”, where there are so many of these powerful, big characters that we know. We wanted to start with a new voyeur and a young blood that has not yet raised ourselves for that time frame in the history of the MCU of our choice. They don’t know how to do this, and they learn when they go during the zombie apocalypse. It gives them something to learn. We can point out their naivetes and their hopeful, youthful, big-eyed, bushy tails. Can they stand up to the horrifying onslaught? Can they come out unharmed, or what are the scars? They mostly did that and then appeared to be arranged to allow other individuals to come in and grow and change our ensemble.
We wanted it to be pretty grand, and there were so many stories that we couldn’t put it all in. So even this, where we know what’s going on with them, is happening with other characters, and we want to tell those stories. It started to feel like “The Lord of the Rings.” Because we wanted it to be this history that was bigger than the audience knew and was happening from the camera. As a result, we started thinking about things like Frodo, like Kamala. This fellowship allows her to gather around her on this crazy journey, as she was not adopted at the time. To do a zombie movie, we began to think of it like a fantasy or a Dungeons and Dragons campaign.
It’s the first time we’ve seen Marvel since “Marvel,” and she’s the Young Avengers alongside Lili Williams, aka Iron Heart, Kate Bishop’s Hawkeye. It will also be shown after Thunderbolts debuted earlier this year. Were there any restrictions on how you could use these characters?
It was quite open. It was early on that we began to develop this. Some of these shows hadn’t come out yet. “Ironheart” was off the path when we started, but we knew it was coming and they seemed like they would play with the exciting and fun, young characters. It wasn’t too much of a concern as this was a small pocket-side universe of its own, and the early stages of their superhero careers. All we need to know was who they were early on, even before those shows began, so there’s a string of cohesion. We didn’t put them in the booth and record them together, but when they got the material they said, “Wait, so we’re all, things?” They were very excited, on their own separate, their animated avatars hanging out with the other gals. It was so much fun watching them become nerds about it.
Why didn’t you use Fantastic Four or X-Men characters?
I wanted to have them, but back then, “Fantastic Four” was far apart. It also exists in another multiverse. Same as the X-Men. How do they come here? So there’s all these questions and Rigmarole. But I should never say, never. So, what I’m hoping is that if there’s a second season, there are already some ideas. So who knows, it’s amazing and it gives us the opportunity to shake up more zombies and crazy heroes.
Blade makes his official MCU debut as Blade Knight, but he is teased with “what if…?” The season 3 finale is very easy. Did you know you wanted to introduce him?
We played season 3 of “What?” Basically “zombies.” “Agatha” appeared on a certain Halloween, so the “zombies” were ready to actually appear. But they say, “Ah, I don’t want one to eat the attention level of the other, so it’s a big deal to do ‘agatha’. Let’s hug the zombies. “When it came time to run all these images at the end of Season 3, we were like, “Yeah!” Something comes is a bit of bullying.
It was pretty early on, and it didn’t turn into a blade. We already knew it would become a Blade Knight. Also, I didn’t know that it would appear before the Blade movie. It’s really hard because when we’re doing an animated thing and they have live action properties at the same time, you need to see what they’re doing with that character in live action. Sometimes they understand that and we say, “We have to use this, we need to make a decision right now.” It’s really hard, so we didn’t want to deal with the blade because there was this script, that script, etc. For example, what are they doing? We don’t know either. If we did Blade Knight, it separates it completely from what they’re doing in the film, makes it our own, it makes it a rad. Honshu’s fist, blade, was very natural early on. It was perfect to pair him with our young hero who didn’t know what they were doing. It really created this great way to get him to work.
Have you received feedback about Blade Knight? Could his character have an impact on live action blades?
I don’t know when they are planning incredible ways. Kevin digs this and digs Blade Knight. I like the reaction of fans throwing away the trailer. I love it when I say, “Hey, if live action isn’t this good, what’s the point?” It really makes me happy. People are answering exactly how I want to respond to them. I feel the same way, so if it could affect the film in any way, that would be great. If a live-action film doesn’t feel bad like that small moment, what is hell?
If you have all these ideas for more stories, why did you only deal with four episodes?
Time and money, man. It was like, “Hey, this is everything you got.” We were, “Oh, shit! It’s okay.” We were making things, but we didn’t know what the limits would turn out. And then they’re like, “Oh, no, no, guys.” Then we thought, “Well, let’s make that into a movie.” We released it into a movie. It should be an epic, it would be two, two, five hours. That would be amazing. However, there were contractual issues for Spider-Man. So, sometimes Sony rules come into play. We said, “Oh, is that something? Ah, no, I don’t think we can do that.” And so we broke it. Now it plays like four chapters in the book. Even in the four chapters, it would have been amazing if they had time to make each installment a little longer. We tried to put it in as much as possible and it moves at a breakneck pace. We put in as many moments of tranquility and reflection as possible. Next time, if everyone screams online enough to love it and demand more, they will give us more time and more money.
It sounds like there’s plenty of material for the second season.
Lots of materials. It’s crazy. There are other characters that people say are “not even quite that way.” Yes, we know. I know what’s going on. We know how people got from A to B. You don’t know the madness waiting around the corner if you get the chance. Brad and I already know how the next one will start. Our first idea was a more medieval fantasy. This was set up after various kingdoms, territories and ruling factions grew. Some of our old guards would be old. We were doing crazy shit. Brad wisely said that people want to see their favorites and don’t see them that crazy. We rolled it back, but we didn’t time jump in the past.
That sounds like, “What if…?” An episode set in 1602. Are there any other episodes of that series?
I love Season 3’s Shanchi Western. My first idea for that was much more insane, incorporating Captain America, Falcon and Nick Fury. The world could be ripe. There, take all the Marvel stuff and pass it through the western lens. That could be one. There are a lot of “what if?” Episodes, an idea Kevin loved, have so many great episodes to put into the season that some of them will be left aside for other future seasons. There was something that would be D&D. Basically, it’s Marvel Superhero D&D. I was trying to follow a group of C-level characters. Perhaps they’re not a superhero, but rather a first-level character, and they’re about to go on this big adventure, which is the 20th level module. You see your A-level heroes going out to do things, but these idiots want to do it anyway, and they gump towards the ending before the other heroes get the ending. So they get all the cool, powerful weapons and level up, then save other teams who are losing by fighting big bosses. It was so great, I might have made all the RPG lore a nerd and mixed it with all the Marvel stuff.
This interview was compiled and condensed.
