Marvel Zombies executive producers Brad Winderbaum and Bryan Andrews have opened up about their decision to include Spider-Man in the upcoming Disney+ animated series. The four-episode show is slated to start streaming on September 24.
How Spider-Man changed Marvel Zombies?
In a previous report, Andrews revealed that Marvel Zombies was originally being developed as a movie. Now, during a recent interview with Who Let Us Out, when asked about the challenges of including Spider-Man, Winderbaum finally confirmed that fan-favorite hero was actually the reason behind their decision to redevelop the project into a four-part series.
“For Spider-Man, we have certain rights to the character, and Sony has other rights to the character,” Winderbaum said. “So we can use Spider-Man in a half-hour animation, which is why we’re able to make Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man as well. But that meant that we had to take our big epic story and break it into four chapters, which I actually think helped the storytelling.”
In addition, Winderbaum and Andrews were also asked if there were more characters that they’re hoping to include in potential future seasons of the show.
“In terms of other characters, there are lots of characters that we wanted to include, that we still talk about, you know,” He continued. “And hopefully, if we get a chance to make more, we’ll be able to tell their stories too.
Andrews added, “No spoilers because we don’t know. But yes, we have ideas for another thing if we’re able to go there.”
Set in an alternate reality, the show reimagines the Marvel Cinematic Universe as a new generation of heroes battles against an ever-spreading zombie scourge. It will feature the voices of returning MCU stars Awkwafina (Shang-Chi and the Legend of Ten Rings) as Katey, David Harbour (Thunderbolts*) as Alexei Shostakov/Red Guardian, Simu Liu (Shang-Chi and the Legend of Ten Rings) as Shang-Chi, Elizabeth Olsen (WandaVision) as Scarlet Witch, Randall Park (WandaVision) as Jimmy Woo, Florence Pugh (Thunderbolts*) as Yelena Belova, Hailee Steinfeld (Hawkeye) as Kate Bishop, Dominique Thorne (Ironheart) as Riri Williams, and Iman Vellani (The Marvels) as Kamala Khan/Ms. Marvel, with Hudson Thames (What If…?) as Spider-Man.
Marvel Zombies is directed by Bryan Andrews from a screenplay written by Zeb Wells, who is also serving as an executive producer. It is inspired by the fifth episode from Season 1 of What If…?, in which the MCU films Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018) and Avengers: Infinity War (2018) ended in a zombie apocalypse. In a press release, Andrews teased that the show will feature “more hardcore” and “pretty wild” zombie sequences, different from what was shown in What If…?
(Source: Who Let Us Out)