Marvel Zombies: Is the series adapted to children?

We are in the MCU … But beware: here, there are blood, hoses and impressive dead. Too gore for young saga fans? We asked creators the question.

After the retro-futuristic adventure of the Fantastic Four this summer in the cinema, Marvel Universe continues its exploration of the parallel worlds with land devastated by the living dead. In Marvel Zombies, the apocalypse has wreaked havoc and rare are the survivors. And as often in these kinds of representations, it’s not pretty to see! Tripes in the air, curved in blood, heads that jump: the series does not back down in front of the horror.

Visually, Marvel Zombies does not hesitate to go frankly in the gore, moving away from the usual smoother graphics of the MCU. “We really let go, and it was delightful,” said director Bryan Andrews to first, while specifying that they could have pushed excess even further: “We could have made free gore. But we said that it was not necessary to put it everywhere either …”.

The animation obviously reduces the impact. Marvel Zombies, it’s not The Walking Dead. The brutality drawn on the screen has something pop, a voluntarily “too much” side which amuses as much as it shocks. The fact remains that the series goes further than most Marvel productions in terms of violence. So, should you let the children look?

“It really depends on the parents”, answers Brad Winderbaum, producer at Marvel Studios and director of animation:

“Me, I have a 9 year old daughter. I recently showed her Alien et aliens, and she loves it. When you are a kid, we always want more. But that’s the responsibility of parents.”

Marvel Zombies has also received a TV-Ma visa (“mature audience only”, or programs reserved for adults in the United States).

“The warning is clear. There is no barrier, we do not retain our blows.” Confirms the producer.

Over the four episodes, the corpses pile up before our eyes. Many iconic MCU characters are killed, brutal and spectacularly, which gives the series an intensity that we hardly see in the productions of the saga (except perhaps in the recent Daredevil series). What ask the question: would the MCU not benefit from exploring these dark tones more often?

“I don’t want to see free dead just to shock in MCU movies”, nuance, however, Winderbaum. “But it is true that the MCU could sometimes gain from exploring more dramatic choices, really strong, unexpected twists, which would have a narrative sense. A bit like the death of Tony Stark in Avengers: Endgame. This kind of artistic choice requires a lot of preparation to be fair. After, in our series, it dies on the right and on the left in a total swirling … It is really another state of mind.”

Marvel Zombies, in 4 episodes to see on Disney Plus this Wednesday, September 24.