Spider-Man appears to be rendered old following Marvel Zombies’ debut on September 24, 2025, on Disney+, featuring relatively newer superheroes like Ms. Marvel in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The director, Bryan Andrews, spoke to Variety regarding his characters:
It came from trying to do something a little different than “What If…?,” where there are a lot of these powerful, big characters that we know. We wanted to be able to start with some young blood and new peeps who, because of that timeframe in MCU history that we chose, have not elevated themselves yet.
Marvel Zombies is the spin-off miniseries based on an episode of What If…?, the anthology show on Disney+.
The show is based on the comic of the same name, and follows a group of survivors as they risk their lives fighting superpowered zombies to save the world.
Marvel Zombies Director’s Comment Hints at MCU’s Focus on Younger Superheroes
Phase 6 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is underway, and Andrews’s comment about young blood is not unfounded. Kevin Feige let slip to the press regarding the future X-Men film (via Variety):
[Schreier is] going to make a youth-focused reboot. That may be reflected in mutant castings, and it’ll definitely be felt in the tone and perspective of the film.
Marvel has indicated that it will be looking for younger and unknown talent over A-listers while recasting the roles of the X-Men.
Disney CEO Bob Iger also teased in 2023 that Marvel is planning to introduce fresh faces rather than focusing on a single group of superheroes (via Bang Premier). Speaking during Disney’s presentation at Morgan Stanley’s Technology Media and Telecom Conference, Iger said:
And if you look at the trajectory of Marvel over the next five years, you’re going to see a lot of newness. We’re going to turn back to the Avengers franchise, but with a whole set of different Avengers.
Lo and behold, we got Thunderbolts*, aka, The New Avengers, a group of fresh faces in the MCU. Unfortunately, Phase 6 is not turning out to be the box office success that Marvel has previously seen.
With the introduction of The Fantastic Four, the phase is still predominantly banking on nostalgia, bringing back a majority of established characters for Avengers: Doomsday, along with The Russo Brothers.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day is another much-anticipated Phase 6 film, with Tom Holland’s spidey being over a decade old in the MCU.
Tom Holland Nearing 30 Is an Indicator That Spider-Man Is No Longer Young Blood
Spider-Man films have been around for over two decades, with the first film released in 2002. Over the many years, we’ve seen both iconic animated and live-action Spider-Men crawl over our screens.
The most famous Spidey in the MCU currently is Tom Holland, who millennials remember as being the fresh face to Marvel in Captain America: Civil War. Feels like only yesterday we were anticipating Spider-Man’s much-anticipated MCU debut, but that “yesterday” was almost a decade ago, in 2016.
Tom Holland is currently 29, and all his co-star A-listers are either middle-aged or nearing it. Marvel has tried to pivot to younger audiences by slowly introducing the Young Avengers, but The Marvels and other related media did not perform well.
What do you think about the future casting in the MCU? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
Marvel Zombies is currently streaming on Disney+ in the U.S.
