Just ten years back, it’d be tough to imagine Disney being willing to put its name to something as outstandingly gory as Marvel: Rivals. The new trailer reveals some incredibly gloopy deaths, outlandish violence, and blood absolutely everywhere. It’s surely one of the goriest things Disney has ever made? The show will also feature the voices of big-time Hollywood names like Paul Rudd, Florence Pugh, Elizabeth Olsen and Awkwafina.
It’s Disney’s rush of acquisitions that mostly seems to have contributed to the once prim company now releasing some very adult content. Buying Marvel and Fox meant the not so family-friendly X-Men movies arrived on streaming platform Disney+, and the two combined in spectacular fashion in the Deadpool movies. It’s quite something that such films appear alongside the gallery of princesses on the subscription service. Now add Marvel Zombies to that discombobulation, because damn, this trailer has all the gore.
I had no expectations for this. The What If… series has mostly left me very flat, but What If… Zombies?! has inspired a whole new miniseries, due to be added to the streamer September 24, and this trailer has me absolutely in.
It helps that the voice cast is absolutely incredible. What If… occasionally got the movie actors, but often not–this time, though, it’s a stunning collection. As you’ll hear in the trailer there’s Florence Pugh revising her Thunderbolts* role as Yelena Belova, along with David Harbour as her father, Alexei Shostakov. But there’s also Paul Rudd as Ant-Man, Awkwafina as Xu Shang-Chi’s bestie Katy, Elizabeth Olson as Scarlet Witch (naturally a zombie), Wyatt Russell as the unimprovably named John Walker, Tessa Thompson as Thor‘s Valkyrie, and Iman Vellani as Kamala Khan. And that’s barely half the list.
The whole thing is obviously entirely non-canon for the MCU, rather offering a chance to let the characters behave in ways they otherwise never could, in circumstances that Disney would never let reach the big screen. Or would they? I mean, Deadpool got to keep going! Maybe one day.
The trailer’s highlight for me? Definitely Spider-Man (still voiced by Hudson Thames as in previous animated series) taking the heads of so many zombs at once. Very not Peter Parker-like behavior.