WARNING! This post contains SPOILERS for The Munsters (2022).Rob Zombie’s The Munsters movie is a campy origin story for the iconic family, but fails to answer one of the sitcom’s biggest Marilyn Munster questions. As a prequel depicting the Transylvania-set love story between Lily and Herman Munster, the 2022 movie is notably missing two of The Munsters' main characters: Eddie and Marilyn Munster. The Munsters ends with Lily, Herman, and The Count leaving Transylvania and finally moving into their beloved 1313 Mockingbird Lane mansion in Los Angeles, teasing Marilyn and Eddie will be coming along soon after.
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The 2022 Netflix movie works to solve a few unanswered questions from The Munsters’ 1960s sitcom. One solved mystery was the appearance of the Munsters’ pet dragon Spot, who was only ever seen with his legs or tail in the TV show. The movie finally gives the dragon a full-body shot as he swims in the bathtub of Lily and Herman’s hotel room. Rob Zombie's The Munsters also reveals how the family was able to maintain their lifestyle in Los Angeles considering their only income was Herman’s full-time job at the local funeral home, as Uncle Lester gave the family a cut of his massive winnings from deals in Las Vegas. However, the movie still doesn’t answer one of The Munsters’ long-standing mysteries regarding Lily’s human niece Marilyn.
While she has yet to move in with Lily and Herman in Rob Zombie’s The Munsters movie, the prequel offered the perfect time to address the mystery surrounding Marilyn’s parents. The Munsters sitcom explained that Marilyn had been living with her aunt Lily, Herman, and Grandpa since she was a baby, but the TV show never revealed the identities of her Transylvanian parents. Director Rob Zombie’s divisive reboot missed the opportunity to bring them into the fold during Lily and Herman’s wedding or honeymoon, as Lily’s other notable family members like Uncle Lester and Uncle Gilbert were included in these scenes. Sadly, The Munsters movie gives no further indication as to who Marilyn’s parents are or what they look like, leaving her background as mysterious as ever.
Everything The Munsters Sitcom Reveals About Marilyn's Background
The Munsters sitcom’s continuity was often broken, especially with the various sequel movies like Munster, Go Home! Consequently, Marilyn’s background has been contradicted on numerous occasions, such as whether she’s actually Herman or Lily’s niece. However, if going by the information presented in The Munsters’ original 1960s series, then Marilyn Munster is definitively Lily’s niece, whose parents are living back in Transylvania. The show never explained why Marilyn was living with Lily and Herman rather than her own parents, but Rob Zombie’s The Munsters movie ending teases it could be that the family lost all of their wealth in Transylvania.
While it isn’t confirmed whether Rob Zombie will be making another Munsters movie, a sequel could finally explore the circumstances behind Marilyn moving in with Lily and Herman. With Zombie’s The Munsters adaptation being a “reimagining,” he has the creative freedom to craft Marilyn’s parents in an even campier and intriguing way, which would still need to explain how she inherited such “homely” looks (as the Munsters describe her). Marilyn’s introduction to the family is a lost moment in The Munsters’ story, making it a fitting plot for a potential sequel.