Why Marvel Zombies Changed Its First, Inception-Inspired Season Finale Ending

One thing that’s clear about Marvel Zombies is that they’re not afraid to get bloody. The six-episode animated series spent most of its runtime pulling the insides of some of our favorite Marvel characters out in very gory (but frankly, adorable) fashion. It was a relief, then, when in the show’s final episode, Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani) made it out alive and back to the land of the living… until she learned her world was dead.

Ms. Marvel’s dream was briefly shattered when she saw the illusion and realized that the world she left behind was still deadlier than ever. According to the show’s creator, the big reveal was initially supposed to be more mysterious, similar to Christopher Nolan’s classic and one of his best films, until they decided to make it clearer.

“The Beginning” is so subtle because it makes you wonder, is he still dreaming? Is he still a failure? Marvel Zombies writer, director and executive producer Brian Andrews said during an interview with Phase Hero’s Brandon Davis, comparing the 2010 film to having more dreams than the dead walking around. “The version I was doing was very subtle, like we weren’t showing anything. It was just a hint of a doubt, a voice, or just a thought process, and she realized she had made a mistake and probably made loud noises to her friends because there was something wrong, something really subtle.” Only after extensive review was a balance found that resulted in a different but delicate dead giveaway.

With just a hint of terror in the closing moments of the original “Marvel Zombies,” time began to turn toward Andrews and the other creatives behind the scenes, who eventually decided that things might need to end with a little bit of a bite. “Then with our amazing editors and stuff, we would look at the material, revisit it, and it lives with you for a while, and it was like, ‘Yes, we should do more.’ And I think the first ideas were much more than that.”

After much deliberation, a solution was eventually arrived at, described by Andrews as a “kernel of an idea” that found its way to the screen. “So we found the happy medium, which was great. Like, I think someone mentioned, ‘What if RiRi was the voice she hears in the wind, or she walked out the portal door behind her, like, ‘Man, everything’s a mess?’ Like it wasn’t quite right, but it was the right direction.”

While this idea has been refined, the direction in which it was supposed to go is unknown. There’s still no confirmation on whether or not Marvel Zombies Season 2 could arrive on Disney+ somewhere in the future, but the cliffhanger it left us with has certainly been handled brilliantly. Hopefully we get one. Otherwise, Kamala will be stuck in a life-or-death dilemma for a very long time.