Marvel Cinematic Universe · What If...?: Season One
What If... Zombies?! — S01E05
TV · 2021 · 31 minutes · Phase Four · alternate
Hank Pym finally breaches the Quantum Realm to rescue Janet van Dyne after thirty years, but she returns infected with a mysterious quantum virus that turns its victims into ravenous zombies. The infection spreads across the San Francisco Bay Area within a day and globally within weeks, striking down heroes including Hope van Dyne and Sam Wilson, while Vision loses the Mind Stone during Wanda's rampage as he tries to help others escape. Thanos and the Black Order's invasion for the Infinity Stones collides with the outbreak, and by the time a small band of survivors — including Peter Parker, Bucky Barnes, Okoye, T'Challa, and a severed-head Scott Lang kept alive by Vision — regroup at Camp Lehigh to search for a cure, Wakanda has already fallen to a zombified Thanos, who closes the completed Infinity Gauntlet as the episode ends.
Follows on from
- Ant-Man and the Wasptimeline-branch — Diverges from the moment Hank Pym rescues Janet van Dyne from the Quantum Realm — here she returns infected with a zombifying quantum virus instead of safely restored.
- Avengers: Infinity Warcrossover — Thanos and the Black Order's Infinity War-consistent invasion for the Infinity Stones collides with this already-diverged, zombie-ravaged timeline, culminating in a zombified Thanos claiming the stones at Wakanda.
Leads to
- Episode 1 — S01E01direct-sequel — Picks up in the zombie universe of What If... Zombies?! five years after the outbreak and the zombified Thanos closing the completed Infinity Gauntlet.