Spider-Man is the reason Marvel Zombies is a TV show and not a movie, according to the producer: "We had to take our big epic story and break it down into 4 chapters"

Marvel Zombies was originally "one big epic story" but had to be split into a four-episode series thanks to a certain web-slinging superhero, executive producer Brad Winderbaum has revealed.

While appearing on the Who Let Us Out podcast recently, Winderbaum, who's currently Marvel's Head of Animation, explained that due to the studio only having "certain rights" to Peter Parker they had to get creative with their final presentation.

"Sony has [the] other rights. We can use Spider-Man in a half-hour animation, which is why we're able to make Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man as well. But that meant that we had to take our big epic story and break it into four chapters, which I actually think helped the storytelling."

Set in an alternate MCU reality, Marvel Zombies reimagines an Earth-616 that's overrun with zombies. With that, it sees the likes of Ms. Marvel (Iman Vellani), Ironheart (Dominique Thorne), Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld), Red Guardian (David Harbour), Yelena Bolova (Florence Pugh), and Shang-Chi (Simu Liu) face off against hordes of the undead. Unlike those characters, Spider-Man isn't voiced by Tom Holland, who plays him on the big screen, but rather What If...? actor Hudson Thames.

When asked whether there were any characters they'd like to have included but didn't get round to squeezing them in, Winderbaum added: "There are lots that we still talk about, you know? Hopefully, if we get a chance to make more, we'll be able to tell their stories, too."

"No spoilers because we don't know," added director Bryan Andrews. "But yes, we have ideas for another thing if we're able to go there."

Marvel Zombies premieres on Disney Plus on September 24. While we wait, check out our guide to the other upcoming Marvel movies and shows heading our way or our own exclusive interview with Brad Winderbaum and Bryan Andrews.