One of the MCU’s Best Ever Villains Just Made a Surprising Return After 3 Years

Three years after their last appearance, a major MCU villain has returned – courtesy of a new Disney+ TV show. Following on from his debut in The Fantastic Four: First Steps‘ post-credits scene, all roads currently lead to Robert Downey Jr’s Doctor Doom, who will be the next big bad of Marvel’s shared universe. When he fully arrives in Avengers: Doomsday, as exciting as that prospect is, he’ll inevitably have to live up to the pantheon of villains who came before him. There have certainly been plenty of misses – the “MCU’s villain problem” was a much-talked-about issue for a reason – but some significant hits too, such as Loki, Thanos, and Erik Killmonger.

Each of those has continued to have an impact on the MCU beyond the movies they were villains in. Loki, post-redemption, is the God of Time and Stories, essentially the being keeping the timelines together. Thanos may not return, but the Snap remains the MCU’s single most defining event. And now Killmonger has returned again too, following on from his role in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, thanks to Eyes of Wakanda. Not only that, but it’s a return that makes the villain even more important. Warning: This article contains SPOILERS for Eyes of Wakanda.

Read Next

The MCU Has A New Black Panther (With a Serious Power Upgrade)

Eyes of Wakanda‘s four episodes chart different points in Wakandan history, following the War Dogs – its intelligence agency – on various missions throughout the timeline. The final episode, “The Last Panther,” begins in 1896, with Prince Tafari and the War Dog Kuda on a mission to retrieve a stolen Vibranium axe… the very same one that Killmonger takes from the museum in Black Panther.

It transpires that the axe is a lot more important than we ever realized. Taking it sets off a chain of events that results in the last Black Panther coming from 500 years in the future to reveal the critical role it plays in the timeline:

• By taking it in 1896, it will never be retrieved by Killmonger.
• Because of that, the events of Black Panther won’t transpire, and Wakanda will never open its borders.
• Eventually, a powerful, all-conquering group called the Horde will emerge from space, destroying most of Earth, which couldn’t stand against them without Wakanda’s help, before they eventually take Wakanda too.

Thankfully, Tafari and Kuda heed the warning and return the axe so that its journey through time could proceed as necessary. The end of the episode confirms they succeeded, with an animated recreation of the scene from Black Panther, wherein Killmonger is shown from behind, looking at a collection of artifacts, including the axe.

Killmonger was already one of the MCU’s greatest villains, who was every bit as complex and captivating as Loki and Thanos. This now elevates him in the same way they already were in terms of importance. Much like them, Killmonger is now crucial to the MCU’s timeline, with him taking the axe described as a “hinge point.” The fate of not only Wakanda, but Earth, depends on it.

After Black Panther, Killmonger has returned multiple times: in the multiversal What If…?, in Wakanda Forever, and now in Eyes of Wakanda. Rather than diluting the character, though, it only adds to his legacy in the MCU, making his villain story in that original outing even stronger.

All four episodes of Eyes of Wakanda are now streaming on Disney+.