Marvel’s Eyes of Wakanda Showrunner Explains Why the Black Panther Prequel Series Is Animated

Prepare to see Wakanda through new eyes. Marvel’s Eyes of Wakanda, an animated Black Panther spinoff series set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, is a globe-trotting, centuries-spanning adventure about the Hatut Zeraze: “Like Wakanda’s CIA,” says producer Brad Winderbaum, Head of Marvel Television and Marvel Animation, in a Marvel Animation 2025 Preview. While the series is executive produced by Ryan Coogler, director of 2018’s Black Panther and 2022’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, the series (premiering Aug. 6) is a story that could be told only in the medium of animation.

“Animation is the ultimate equalizer of locations,” series creator and showrunner Todd Harris explained. “Egypt costs just as much as New York City, and the moon costs just as much as Ohio. Filming around the globe has inherent limitations that we just don’t have in animation. That freedom allowed us to reimagine an idealized version of an era that’’s unaffected by human history.”

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The four-episode event series recounts the epic adventures of brave Wakandan warriors throughout history who carried out dangerous missions to retrieve Vibranium artifacts from the enemies of Wakanda. Warriors like the gold-adorned Lion (voiced by Black Lightning‘s Cress Williams).

The Hatut Zeraze “often have to venture out to regain stolen Vibranium, but they also have to keep secrets well-hidden so that Wakanda can ward off invaders and stay safe,” Winderbaum said. “The Hatut Zaraze are challenged in different ways to stay loyal to Wakanda as they discover the rest of the world around them.”

Harris, a storyboard artist whose credits include both Black Panther films and Marvel Animation’s What If…?, directs and serves as executive producer with Winderbaum (X-Men ’97), Kevin Feige (Deadpool & Wolverine), Louis D’Esposito (Agatha All Along), and Proximity Media’s Zinzi Coogler (Judas and the Black Messiah), Sev Ohanian (Anthem), Kalia King (Sheba), and Coogler (Ironheart).

“This has been a long time coming,” Harris said. “The story has been stewing for a long time in my head. I’m a big believer in what Wakanda represents to mankind as a place that’s untethered by expansion. It has drawn a line — a line it won’t cross and it won’t let anybody else cross.”

Eyes of Wakanda — featuring the voices of Winnie Harlow (Grown-ish), Patricia Belcher (The Villains of Valley View), Larry Herron (Marvel’s Spider-Man 2), Adam Gold (Hogwarts Legacy), Lynn Whitfield (The Chi), Jacques Colimon (Fright Krewe), Jona Xiao (The Flash), Isaac Robinson-Smith (X-Men ’97), Gary Anthony Williams (Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur), Zeke Alton (Batman: Arkham Shadow), Steve Toussaint (House of the Dragon), and Anika Noni Rose (Mufasa: The Lion King) — is streaming August 6 on Disney+.