Marvel fans are pretty hopeful for the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The legendary franchise had some uncharacteristic stumbles throughout Phase Five, as Multiverse Saga titles like Secret Invasion, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, and The Marvels either underperformed during their releases or received negative reviews from critics (in some cases: Both!). However, things appear to be back on track as the franchise looks set to begin wrapping up the Multiverse Saga.
Recent theatrical releases like Thunderbolts* and The Fantastic Four: First Steps have set the stage for Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars nicely, restoring fans' faith in the franchise quite a lot. And Disney Plus outings like Agatha All Along and Ironheart have also received critical-acclaim, with the former performing extremely well for the platform.
There are also some more exciting titles on the MCU calendar, including Spider-Man: Brand New Day, The Punisher Special Presentation, and Avengers: Doomsday itself, so next year is looking stacked. This year, however, still features at least two more exciting MCU projects, and we have just gotten our first look at one of them.
Marvel Studios unveils bloody first trailer for Marvel Zombies
Marvel surprised its fans on a normal Tuesday at the start of September with the first look at upcoming animated series Marvel Zombies. The first trailer was released to the studio's YouTube account (as well as its social media pages) and it very quickly took the internet by storm, showing us all just how graphic the TV-MA project is set to be.
Watch it below:
Prior to this, the only real exposure audiences had to anything zombie-related from Marvel was the episode of What If...? that inspired this series. Zombies will be spun out of that one, expanding on the stories that it dealt with while also offering up much more boundary-pushing elements. Yep, as Marvel Zombies is rated TV-MA, it will be a lot gorier. And the trailer has no problem highlighting that.
The opening seconds of the preview feature a zombie getting taken out by what appears to be one of Hawkeye's arrows, and it's very clear that the show's viewers are in for a gruesome ride. The violence gets more graphic throughout, including a scene in which Spider-Man swings over a herd of the undead, pulling all of their heads right off their shoulders. And then the final scene just might be the most graphic of them all, as the Blade variant known as Blade Knight engages in a battle with a zombified Ghost before slicing and dicing the creature into pieces.
One character who the trailer is only referencing with vague shots for the moment is Wanda Maximoff, a.k.a. the Scarlet Witch. Just like in the What If...? episode, Wanda will seemingly be the queen of the zombies, with Okoye set to serve as her second-in-command. We don't quite know how large a role she will play, but we do know that Elizabeth Olsen is reprising her role as Wanda to voice the character here.
Meanwhile, it's looking like Yelena Belova, Red Guardian and Blade Knight will all play pivotal parts as the world seeks to survive the army of the undead that consists of their beloved Avengers. Yep, we're in for one heck of a ride with this Disney Plus series.
Marvel Zombies premieres on Disney Plus on September 24, 2025.