Marvel’s animation slate is often overlooked because it’s only canon-adjacent; Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, for example, is set in an alternate timeline. But that will soon change with a four-part miniseries set in the Sacred Timeline, albeit during a different period than the majority of the MCU. In fact, it’s set in several different times, as it explores something the rest of the MCU hasn’t had time for.
Entertainment Weekly has published a sneak peek at Eyes of Wakanda, an animated miniseries following Wakanda’s warriors across history. The four episodes follow the CIA-like Hatut Zaraze as they “attempt to recover Vibranium artifacts from Wakanda's enemies,” and it will break new ground for Marvel by being an animated series that truly matters.
While the series follows Wakandans in the outside world, they’ll maintain the secrecy that helped make Wakanda such an advanced society. “They've got to, in a very hush hush kind of way, make sure that these things don't turn into a bigger problem," showrunner Todd Harris said. "We saw what happened when one disc got into the hands of one Super Soldier — it changed the course of the world."
That’s true, but Eyes of Wakanda won’t dwell on the periods you might imagine when you think of the MCU. “The story starts off during the end of the Western Bronze Age, and that spark sets off this giant spy-espionage story that reverberates through time....” Harris said. “You get Wakanda-grade James Bond, and sometimes a Jane Bond, with the backdrop of all the awesomeness that is Wakanda.”
As viewers, our knowledge of Wakanda begins when the outside world learns of its existence. This series should show us just how Wakanda outpaced the rest of the world, and how it operated in secret for millennia. And, because Eyes of Wakanda is set in the Sacred Timeline, all of its events will be MCU canon. That might have broader implications for the franchise, and at the very least, it should make for a fun story.
“Part of it is holding a mirror up to some historical theories and some historical facts and some historical preconceived notions,” Harris says. Maybe, just like Loki was D.B. Cooper, those supposed ancient aliens were Wakandans all along.
