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Happy Halloween this month! Jay of the Dead’s New Horror Movies presents another special edition of Dead Man Still Walking, the Zombie Movie Podcast with Dr. Walking Dead. This time, Dr. Kyle Bishop welcomes guest Jay of the Dead to tackle Marvel’s animated, four-part Marvel Zombies (2025). Though the series has the cumulative length and continuous plot of a feature film, its connection to What If…? leaves both hosts initially bewildered—and wondering why a story with “Zombies” in its title expects viewers to arrive with so much Marvel homework completed.
Dr. Bishop and Jay discuss the series’ high-concept zombie mythology, including the quantum-virus outbreak, red-eyed undead under Scarlet Witch’s control, and superpowered zombies who retain startlingly useful skills. They examine its blend of siege narrative, road-trip narrative, Marvel comedy, graphic animated violence, and increasingly kaleidoscopic superhero action. Along the way, they praise several returning voice performers, debate whether the series is truly satisfying zombie fare, celebrate some remarkably inventive undead kills, and explain why the finale earns its dark ending.
Note: This episode reveals major plot spoilers from “Marvel Zombies” (2025) and related Marvel properties.
Also, to view ALL of Dr. Bishop’s Dead Man Still Walking solocast episodes can USE THIS LINK. And to view ALL of Dr. Bishop’s episode-by-episode commentaries on The Last of Us – Seasons 1 and 2, with Jay of the Dead, then USE THIS LINK.
Dead Man Still Walking is a biweekly, short-form solocast hosted by Dr. Walking Dead Kyle Bishop, author of American Zombie Gothic and How Zombies Conquered Popular Culture. Dr. Walking Dead also presents a popular segment called The Dead Zone on regular episodes of this podcast. For his Dead Man Still Walking solocast episodes, Dr. Bishop will focus exclusively on zombie films, with the occasional exploration of zombie-related themes, zombie television, and other zombie media (e.g., comics, literature, etc.).
Dr. Bishop is an academic and professional scholar of zombie films and other zombie narratives. He has been teaching for 26 years. Dr. Bishop serves as an English professor, Film Studies professor, and he’s currently the English Department Chair at Southern Utah University.
You are welcome to reach out to Dr. Bishop with comments or questions via email: bishopk@suu.edu, X: @DrWalkingDead, BlueSky and Instagram (@DrWalkingDead). You can also watch the documentary, Doc of the Dead (2014), which features Dr. Walking Dead. Find more links below for Dr. Bishop.
Be sure to subscribe to Jay of the Dead’s new Horror movie podcast on:
You are welcome to email our show at HauntingYourHeadphones@gmail.com. You can also follow Jay of the Dead’s New Horror Movies on X: @HorrorAvengers
Dead Man Still Walking with Dr. Kyle Bishop is brought to you by Jay of the Dead’s New Horror Movies, an audio Horror movie podcast. It features 10 experienced Horror hosts review new Horror movies and deliver specialty Horror segments. Your hosts are Jay of the Dead, Dr. Shock, Gillman Joel, Mister Watson, Dr. Walking Dead, GregaMortis, Mackula, Ron Martin, Dave Zee and Spawn of the Dead! Due to the large number and busy schedule of its nine Horror hosts, Jay of the Dead’s New Horror Movies will be recorded in segments, piecemeal, at various times and recording sessions. Therefore, as you listen to our episodes, you will notice a variety of revolving door hosts and segments, all sewn together and reanimated like the powerful Monster of Dr. Frankenstein!
SHOW NOTES
– Introduction
- Welcome to Dead Man Still Walking with Dr. Walking Dead
- Dr. Bishop welcomes guest Jay of the Dead
- Why this four-part animated series qualifies for discussion as a feature-length continuous story
- Marvel Zombies premiered September 24, 2025
- Discussion of the source comic’s connection to Robert Kirkman, creator of The Walking Dead
- The importance of first watching the What If…? episode “What If… Zombies?!”
- Dr. Bishop’s forthcoming academic paper about zombie-outbreak narratives
Modern, Animated Zombie Movie:
Marvel Zombies (2025) (SPOILERS! – 4 episodes)
Jay of the Dead = 7 ( Stream it! )
Dr. Walking Dead = 6 ( Stream for well-versed Marvel fans )
A Few Discussion Points:
– The series is a sequel to the What If…? zombie episode, but its relationship to that episode is not clearly established for casual viewers
– Confusion over the unexplained five-year jump after the original outbreak
– The quantum-virus origin of the zombie apocalypse
– Returning live-action Marvel actors lending their voices to animated counterparts
– Praise for the voice performances, particularly Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff / Scarlet Witch
– The difficulty of tracking deep-cut Marvel characters, alternate timelines, and dense continuity
– Discussion of the red-eyed zombies and their unusual intelligence, speech, leadership, and retained skills
– Comparison of Marvel’s undead to Romero zombies, revenants, and the zombies of Army of the Dead
– Tonal clash between bleak apocalypse material and jokey Marvel-character banter
– Episode 1’s siege narrative and its disappointing opening setup
– Jay’s recommendation to consider skipping Episode 1 and beginning with Episode 2
– Discussion of the device-driven quest plot and its ultimately pointless MacGuffin
– The series combines 20th-century zombie siege narratives with 21st-century zombie road-trip narratives
– Awkwafina’s Katy is Dr. Bishop’s favorite character
– Discussion of Scarlet Witch’s zombie army and her control over the red-eyed undead
– Blade Knight: a remarkably cool but insufficiently explained Marvel mashup
– Baron Zemo, Namor, New Asgard, Wakanda, and the show’s “everything in a blender” approach
– Frustration that the further the series progresses, the less central its zombies sometimes feel
– Zombie Thanos, the Infinity Gauntlet, and the arrival of Infinity Hulk
– Spider-Man, Scott Lang, the Mystic Arts, and the show’s reliance on viewers’ Marvel knowledge
– Scarlet Witch’s sinister transformation of the Asgardians
– The Nova Corps revelation and the bleak implications of quarantine
– Episode 4 as the series’ full-on “slaughterfest” finale
– Praise for Hulk’s one-man stand against wave after wave of zombies
– Discussion of spectacular but occasionally confusing, color-saturated action
– Spider-Man’s multiple decapitation kills
– Valkyrie’s gruesome inside-out defeat of a giant zombie
– The series’ unusually dark, horror-minded ending—and its potential setup for Season 2
– Final verdict: a wild and intermittently entertaining Marvel-Horror experiment that works better for Marvel devotees than zombie purists
Next time: Forgive Us All (2025)
Special thanks to website developer Jaxon Carroll and graphic designer Trump Widdop for their excellent work in helping Jay of the Dead’s New Horror Movies to have a nice, new website. Thank you! And big shout-out and thanks to Mister Watson and his son, Skylarr, for composing the music for Mister Watson’s Horror Hierarchy segment.
LINKS FOR THIS EPISODE:
Links for Dr. Walking Dead Kyle Bishop:
Follow Dr. Walking Dead on Letterbox’d
Email Dr. Bishop here: bishopk@suu.edu
Dr. Walking Dead’s Bio Page
Book: American Zombie Gothic
Book: How Zombies Conquered Popular Culture
— Kyle’s Amazon Author Profile
— Doc of the Dead zombie culture documentary
— Kyle’s re-animated Twitter: @DrWalkingDead
– Learn more about Dr. Walking Dead
– Faculty Friday: Meet Dr. Kyle Bishop, English
– TEDx SUU Talk on YouTube: Why Zombies Matter
– YouTube: Zombies: An idea worth spreading about how ideas spread
– YouTube: 50+ Shades of Gothic: Zombies, Bodies and Boundaries
– YouTube: Why zombie culture is so popular?
Jay of the Dead’s NEW HORROR MOVIES podcast links:
Email: HauntingYourHeadphones@gmail.com
Voicemail: (801) 980-1375
Twitter: @HorrorAvengers
YouTube Channel: Jay of the Dead’s New Horror Movies
Subscribe via Apple Podcasts
Subscribe via Spotify
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The soundtrack music for Jay of the Dead’s New Horror Movies is composed and performed by musicians Fred Ingram; Nate Johnivan; Mister Watson and his son, Skylarr; and Jason Pyles himself. Please support our talented musician friends by checking out more of Nate and Fred’s links below:
Links for musician Frederick Ingram:
Website: FrederickIngram.com
Frederick Ingram’s new album Initial Exposure (includes “Voltairine,” the theme music for Jay of the Dead’s New Horror Movies)
Frederick Ingram’s YouTube Music Channel
Listen to Frederick Ingram on SoundCloud
YouTube Music Video: “Voltairine” by Frederick Ingram (the theme music for Jay of the Dead’s New Horror Movies)
Interview: Hear Fred Ingram on Jay’s Songwriting Podcast
Frederick Ingram’s Fish Bowl (Funky Margarita Mix)
Links for musician Nate Johnivan:
Spotify Playlist
Quarantine Dream iii
Thank you for listening to Dead Man Still Walking with Dr. Walking Dead, proudly brought to you by Jay of the Dead’sNew Horror Movies, The Gold Standard of Horror Movie Podcasts.