Plot: The new action-adventure series follows the adventures of brave Wakandan warriors throughout history. In this globe-trotting adventure, the heroes must carry-out dangerous missions to retrieve Vibranium artifacts from the enemies of Wakanda. They are the Hatut Zaraze and this is their story.
Review: On the heels of The Fantastic Four: First Steps, the third Marvel Cinematic Universe film of the year (and the first of Phase Six), Disney+ is debuting the short run of their new animated series, Eyes of Wakanda. Set in the Sacred Timeline of the MCU, Eyes of Wakanda is a stunning new addition to the world of Black Panther that distinguishes itself from everything that came before it from Marvel Studios in countless ways. A beautifully animated epic that spans thousands of years, Eyes of Wakanda looks unlike anything we have seen from the MCU while exploring the mythology of the fictional nation of Wakanda. With many Marvel Studios offerings often overstaying their welcome with too many episodes or bloated running times, Eyes of Wakanda will leave audiences desperate for more adventures in this distinct corner of the MCU.
Eyes of Wakanda is an anthology of four chapters lasting less than an hour, set in multiple eras, from Ancient Greece to the 19th Century. While Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther films introduced audiences to the female warriors known as the Dora Milaje, we heard only fleeting references to the War Dogs, Wakandan warriors who protected their nation by venturing to the outside world. Sterling K. Brown portrayed N’Jobu as a fallen War Dog while fleeting references told us little about their origins as the Hatut Zaraze. Eyes of Wakanda looks at the group’s past, beginning with The Lion (Cress Williams), a War Dog who abandoned his role to seek power in the outside world. The series chronicles the War Dogs’ quest to reclaim stolen Wakandan artifacts from around the globe, with each chapter giving us a brief glimpse at four key moments across the last four thousand years.
Each episode is connected to the others in ways I will not spoil here, but the level of relevance to the MCU as a whole varies between the four stories. The first episode follows Noni (Winnie Harlow) and her search for The Lion, which sets up the episodes that follow. Two episodes serve as standalone entries, with the premiere and finale anchoring the mythology aspects of the series. That does not mean the middle is filler, as the limited run of Eyes of Wakanda precludes any of this format from wasting a bit of time. The right storytelling of these half-hour chapters forces the creative team to choose their elements carefully. The middle chapters of the series are incredibly different, each having fun with twists on The Odyssey and the other a foray into Ancient China, two eras very different from what we have seen before, while also showing us how little Wakanda itself has changed.
While Black Panther: Wakanda Forever introduced audiences to Riri Williams, who recently got her spin-off series with Ironheart, Eyes of Wakanda delivers some substantial additions to the MCU, including our first official Iron Fist, replacing the divisive Netflix character played by Finn Jones. While this Iron Fist does not retcon the live-action version, it does offer us a much improved take on the character’s roots. The finale episode, set in Ethiopia in 1896, will be the episode that will have Marvel fans abuzz with what it brings to the MCU, something I will not spoil here. Still, it does involve Disney actress Anika Noni Rose portraying a character that adds a fascinating and original twist to the mythology of the Marvel Cinematic Universe that enhances the experience of watching Black Panther and how that film influenced the subsequent events in the Sacred Timeline.
Developed by Ryan Coogler, Eyes of Wakanda was created by veteran storyboard artist Todd Harris, whose twenty-plus-year career resume includes both Black Panther films and multiple MCU projects. Harris directed three of the four episodes, one of which he co-directed with John Fang. Fang directed the remaining episode, with writing duties coming from Geoffrey Thorne and Marc Bernadin, each of whom scripted two episodes. The score from Hesham Nazih complements the Black Panther themes composed by Ludwig Göransson. While the animation style of What If…? distinguished itself, Black Panther hews closer to the legacy of Disney animation with beautiful lush backgrounds. Harris’s work as an artist in developing Black Panther’s signature look flows directly into Eyes of Wakanda, making this series the most direct connection to the live-action MCU to date.
The story at the center of Eyes of Wakanda could have made for an amazing live-action film, but with the sprawling timeline, it would have been a logistical challenge that animation easily could solve. There have been few series in recent memory, comic book or otherwise, that I have been left wanting more of. Still, the four short episodes comprising Eyes of Wakanda are so good that I could have watched another dozen or more entries without the series overstaying its welcome. Because of the time jumps in the series, we do not spend a lot of time with these characters, leaving plenty of room for return visits to these eras, with the plot structure leaving the door open to see where the War Dogs could have visited in thousands of years of missions to the outside world. Eyes of Wakanda is the best animated project from Disney+ in years and a solid opening small-screen effort to kick off Phase Six of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Eyes of Wakanda premieres August 1st on Disney+.
