The Marvel Cinematic Universe may have just released its most unique title ever. Marvel Zombies has arrived and it has delivered some of the most thrilling, action-packed, and gory scenes to ever exist in a Marvel Studios project. Yep, it made full use of its TV-MA rating in a way that many didn't think it would - especially as it was a spinoff of the relatively tame animated series What If...?.
The four-part series made a major impression on Disney Plus with its debut, which saw it unveil all four of those episodes at once. And it very quickly delivered on its promise to thrill, producing some of the most non-stop, gripping sequences we've seen from the franchise in some time.
However, nothing could have quite prepared fans for that jaw-dropping ending, which very much seems to have left the door open for future adventures. And, if it left you with some questions too, let's dive into it and what it all means.
Marvel Zombies ending recap and explanation
The story of Marvel Zombies is simple: Ms. Marvel / Kamala Khan must activate a secret signal to alert the Nova Corps to help them all save Earth from the zombie apocalypse that has ravaged the planet for five years. However, that ultimately fails as the Nova Corps have been there all along, waiting in Space to ensure that nobody tries to leave the planet, ready to attack in case they risk spreading the virus to other planets.
There is only one thing left to do: Fight. And with that, Kamala and her friends (Shang-Chi, Blade Knight, Spider-Man, Ant-Man, and Valkyrie) decide to take a stand against the Queen of the Dead, the Scarlet Witch herself, Wanda Maximoff. Wanda is ready to attack the creature that was once the Hulk. It turns out that Bruce Banner absorbed the raw energy of the Infinity Stones, which would have otherwise destroyed the entire planet. Now, Wanda wants this power for herself - or, as she puts it, to save everyone and fix everything.
The Avengers put up a valiant battle, but in the end, they begin to fall to Wanda's ravenous army. Although Ms. Marvel holds her own, she eventually becomes the last one standing, which leaves her with an impossible decision to make: Watch all of her friends die and do nothing, or trust that Wanda really has the power to fix things and let her do it. She ultimately chose to do the latter, and in the blink of an eye... everything was fixed.
Kamala woke up in her own bedroom and grabbed lunch with Kate Bishop and Riri Williams (both of whom were vanquished in the original timeline). She even spotted a young, good-looking man (who was definitely Kamran from the Ms. Marvel series) and in that moment things were looking up. That is, until they weren't.
Through the light, beauty, and hope, darkness broke through. There were glimpses of broken down streets overrun by zombies and, through it all, the real Riri Williams / Ironheart battled them, warning Kamala that it's all fake. And with that, a terrified Ms. Marvel looked on with fright as we get one more glimpse of the Queen of the Dead's terrifying face.
What the ending of Marvel Zombies really means (and how it sets up season 2)
Well, that was a pretty thrilling finale wasn't it?! Kamala thought everything went back to normal only for it all to come crumbling down. Except it didn't crumble down entirely; she's still only getting visions of the dark streets before her, seemingly in a trance that she can't get out of. We don't know exactly what's going on, but we do know who the culprit behind it all is.
The Scarlet Witch's immeasurable powers are capable of just about anything, and placing a super-powered individual into a trance is definitely within those capabilities. Don't take my word for it, take Wanda's as the main timeline's iteration of the character was able to trap a host of people in an idyllic sitcom without even fully knowing that she was doing it. The events of WandaVision really magnified just how powerful the Scarlet Witch is, and it's pretty clear that this is in play once again.
There are either two things that happened here: Wanda didn't restore her world to normal like she promised Kamala and allowed the zombies to run free, all while palcing Kamala in this dream in order to distract her. If that is the case, she may have made some changes to the zombified timeline. For example, Riri is alive here and the show very much implied that she died whilst fighting a horde of zombies early on. Although, we didn't see Riri's death on-screen, so it's quite possible that she has been alive all along and is simply trying to save her friend.
On the other end of things, perhaps Kamala was placed in this trance-like state in the premiere episode during the battle between the zombie iterations of Captain Marvel and Ikaris. If that's the case, it would explain why Riri is still alive. But in order to double down on that, it would mean that all of the events of the first season never actually took place, which doesn't seem like something the series would want to do.
Either way, one thing is very clear: This sets the stage for a potential Marvel Zombies season 2. Although the show has not yet been officially renewed by Disney Plus, Marvel's Head of Streaming, Animation, and Television Brad Winderbaum recently surprised fans when he revealed that the miniseries actually could return for a second season, telling Nerdist that they have ideas to explore more characters in another outing. With that, it sounds like they're just waiting on the green light from Disney Plus.
New characters or old characters, the season finale of Marvel Zombies confirmed that there is more story to tell. Here's hoping that they get the chance to do just that.
All four episodes of Marvel Zombies are now streaming on Disney Plus.