Curious to know how the Marvel Zombies plague starts? The new animated series centers on Earth’s mightiest heroes being infected and transformed into zombies, creating havoc and terror across the world. A new generation of heroes assembles to battle against this surge.
Following the series’ release, many are eager to explore the origins of the plague known as the Hunger.
Marvel Zombies’ plague explained
The plague began when a zombified version of Sentry arrived on Earth-2149, sent through an eternal time loop by the Watcher of Earth-Z.
The Avengers investigated the incident but became zombies immediately after being bitten. They spread the virus worldwide, infecting civilians and other heroes. Nick Fury and Ashley Williams attempted to stop the outbreak but failed. Within 24 hours, the zombies consumed the entire planet. Quicksilver accelerated the spread by using his super speed to carry the infection across countries.
When food grew scarce, a zombified Reed Richards devised a plan to invade another reality but discovered that another zombie counterpart had already used it. He and Spider-Monkey employed a time machine and an inter-dimensional teleporter to alter the invasion, inadvertently creating new parallel universes. The realities began to fracture with Sentry’s release fueling the Hunger. As zombified heroes wielded their powers, the plague worsened, driving an endless cycle of hunger and destruction.
In a conversation, Brad Winderbaum, head of Marvel Television, explained how they developed the concept after introducing it in What If…? He said, “It’s just so much fun as a concept. When Bryan and I were making What If…?, it was a real early episode idea that we knew we wanted. It was almost the reason to make the show, just to do a zombies episode.”
Creator Bryan Andrews also shared his vision for assembling a young set of heroes to face zombified versions of their idols. “When we meet them in [Marvel Zombies], they’re definitely young and possibly naïve. They’ve got incredible skills, but they may not be prepared for the amount of pain that’s coming. Being able to turn that on them and see how long their hope survives is good. If you did that with an older character, they’ve been through a lot of stuff. But doing it with younger characters, all bets are off,” he added (via Marvel).
