Marvel's newest What If...? sends the Avengers into a zombie apocalypse
Burbank, California - The fifth episode of Marvel's What If..? reveals a world where super-intelligent zombies rule.
On Wednesday, the daring animated series took things even further than fans might have imagined.
Using the plots from Ant-Man and the Wasp and Avengers: Infinity Wars, the series's fifth chapter questioned what would happen if Dr. Bruce Banner/Hulk, voiced by Mark Ruffalo, wasn't able to warn his comrades about Thanos's arrival in time.
When Bruce crashes into the Sanctum Sanctorum, he finds himself in a world where most of the Avengers are undead and the few remaining are scrambling to survive.
The show takes a page out of The Walking Dead's book, but shows that not everybody is interested in curing the zombie disease.
What if zombies took over the world instead?
Episode 5 begins two weeks before Bruce's arrival, as Hank Pym is still on a quest to save his wife Janet van Dyme from the Quantum Realm. However, when he finds her, she's been zombified by a quantum virus.
Hank becomes infected when she bites him, and the two escape and subsequently infect the entire population.
The Avengers arrive but are no match for their undead foes, who retain their abilities to use technology and magic.
Fast-forward to Bruce's crash course to New York, when the scientist has problems changing into the Hulk and is apprehended by Thanos's "children."
However, Bruce is briefly saved by his zombified teammates, including a very horrific looking Tony Stark.
Earth's mightiest heroes come to the rescue: the Cloak of Levitation, Hope van Dyne, Peter Parker, Bucky Barnes, Okoye, Sharon Carter, Happy Hogan, and Kurt.
The team discover a camp in New Jersey developing a cure for the zombie-virus and decide to venture there. But disaster strikes as they lose Happy, Hope, and Sharon on the way to – you guessed it – zombies.
When they arrive at the eerily abandoned camp, the remainders encounter Vision, whose Mind Stone can reverse the virus. He shows the heroes that he previously cured Scott Lang, whose head is kept in alive in a jar.
Yet, things take a turn for the worse when Bucky stumbles upon T'Challa/Black Panther's dismembered body, voiced by Chadwick Boseman. The Wakandian Prince reveals that Vision lured him, and countless others, to the camp to feed the infected Wanda Maximoff.
Wanda suddenly breaks free and kills Kurt, Okoye, and Barnes. Vision, seeking redemption, sacrifices himself and removes the Mind Stone to give to Peter.
Bruce is finally able to transform into the Hulk and fends off Wanda to give T'Challa, Peter, and Scott a chance to escape to Wakanda, where they plan to use the stone to cure the world's population.
But it doesn't look good, as the story concludes with the supposedly secure country full of the undead and a zombified Thanos still plotting to take over the world.
Will zombies appear in future Marvel films and shows?
What If...? continues to push the boundaries of the MCU's imagination.
The series may still seem chaotic to those who aren't faithful followers. But slowly but surely, as viewers are getting a very extensive look at the chaos of the multiverse, events are coming to light.
And since the VP of Production and Development at Marvel Studios Brad Winderbaum has pretty much confirmed that What If...? is just as important as Loki in the MCU, it's clear audiences need to keep paying close attention to the various fates of its heroes.
Yet, an even more intriguing question is: Will the zombie apocalypse storyline pop up again in any future films or shows?
With the upcoming Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness gearing up to be Marvel's scariest and wildest flick yet, it's looking like the undead version of Earth's mightiest defenders could appear there.
Cover photo: Collage: 123RF/grandfailure & IMAGO / Everett Collection