Back in 2021, when Marvel was in a period of serious expansion on the big screen and on streaming, the studio announced a surprise animated series titled Eyes of Wakanda. A direct spinoff from Black Panther and its sequel Wakanda Forever, unlike fellow animated series X-Men ’97, What If…? and Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, the Todd Harris-created series has the advantage of being set in Marvel’s “Sacred Timeline,” aka the main continuity of the MCU. Four years later, the four-episode series is debuting on August 1 after jumping around the schedule a bunch of times. And while it is beautifully animated and voice-acted, and features some thrilling connections to the MCU, the big problem is that at four sub-30-minute episodes, there’s just not enough of the show to really dig into.
Granted, that’s not the worst problem a show can have: that you want more of it. But the short length of the season, unfortunately, doesn’t do the exciting premise any favors. The gist of the show, which is set up in the first episode, “Into the Lion’s Den,” is that there’s yet another secret faction of Wakandan warriors beyond the Dora Milaje: the Hatut Zeraze, aka War Dogs, whose job it is to head to the outside world and protect Wakandan secrets and interests. They’ve actually been depicted in the movies before: N’Jobu (Sterling K. Brown), Zuri (Forest Whittaker), and Nakia (Lupita Nyong’o) were all members of the War Dogs. But here, thanks to a rogue War Dog named The Lion (Cress Williams), we’re following members of the organization who are seeking to retake relics he stole from the home country, throughout time — ranging from 1260 BC, to 1869 AD.
It’s a pretty broad spectrum in which to set a show, and as set up in the premiere there are dozens of potential artifacts to be found throughout history. The problem is that the show allows for three of them, given the premiere is a pilot episode. Each episode also jumps throughout time dramatically, meaning the main character or characters you’ve been following in one episode is likely long dead by the time you get to the next one — though Harris and crew do a nice job of making sure there there are connections made throughout the history of the organization, per the whole ethos of legacy in Black Panther and Wakanda Forever. But by the time we get to the finale, which is thrilling for fans of the MCU in ways I won’t spoil here, there’s essentially been two anthology episodes, two mythology episodes, and then the show is over.
It’s unfortunate because the endlessly malleable premise is the sort of thing that could thrive in an eight, 10, or preferably 22-episode season that allows for more connections, and more returning characters to create emotional bonds with as a viewer — versus the pure anthology of establishing a character and premise in 20ish minutes (subtracting time for credits) and then moving on to the next thing.
Of the episodes we do get, though, they’re all pretty solid. The characters eschew the 2D/3D blended style of What If…? for a more traditional Disney look, melded with lush and fully realized backgrounds. Given Harris’s own background as a storyboard artist for Marvel on everything from both Black Panther movies to Shang-Chi, Spider-Man: Far From Home, and more, this approach makes a lot of sense and is reminiscent of the tact taken by the recent Hulu movie Predator: Killer of Killers. That aimed to provide the experience of looking at a beautiful piece of concept art in every frame. So too does Eyes of Wakanda look gorgeous whenever you pause it (and when it’s moving, too).
The action is also expertly staged — and for those curious about whether they can watch this with kids, pretty brutal. It’s not at the blood and guts level of the aforementioned Predator movie, but the War Dogs don’t hesitate to kill when necessary. And those kills are shown on screen, clearly and specifically, given it’s mostly hand-to-hand combat, or done with blades.
And the voice work is excellent across the board, as well. Williams is a stand-out as rogue War Dog The Lion in the first episode, his deep growl perfectly providing a villainous bent to the baddie. Jacques Colimon is very fun as Basha, a much more light-hearted War Dog in the third episode. And Anika Noni Rose (probably best known as Princess Tiana from The Princess and the Frog) plays a surprise character in the final episode that is so exciting you’ll be begging for a spinoff from the spinoff.
The unfortunate part here is that despite that excitement, and even the awesome introduction of an Iron Fist into the MCU (sorry, Finn Jones), relegating this to four episodes makes it feel like one of the DVD one-shots that Marvel Studios used to make, a fun extra rather than the main event. With a little more time and more episodes, Eyes of Wakanda could have been on the same level as the Black Panther movies that spawned it. And hopefully it does well enough that Marvel picks it up for a longer, heftier second season. As is, though, given the scant length it’ll be hard to keep eyes on this show before they flip over to something else.
All four episodes of Eyes of Wakanda premiere August 1, 2025 on Disney+.
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