As we wait for Black Panther 3 updates, the Eyes of Wakanda animated series is taking shape ahead of its August release, with director Todd Harris revealing big details about the new TV show – including an appearance from Iron Fist.
Following a troubling 2023, the Marvel Cinematic Universe is taking a new approach with its content, focusing on quality rather than quantity. While this does mean projects have been scaled back, there’s still plenty on the horizon.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps is one of the most anticipated superhero movies in recent memory, and will be followed up by equally hyped big-screen titles: Spider-Man 4, Avengers: Doomsday, and Avengers: Secret Wars.
Over on Disney+, Ironheart is the next live-action series, and in August, we’re getting Eyes of Wakanda, an animated TV show set in the Black Panther miniverse (if you will).
Eyes of Wakanda to include “not the Iron Fist you expect”
The first episode of the upcoming MCU show premiered at the Annecy Animation Festival on Monday (June 9). In a post-screening Q&A, Harris revealed that the Eyes of Wakanda is an “anthology adjacent” series and that each episode is 30 minutes long.
But the biggest news is that there will be familiar Marvel characters, including a former Defender. “There will be an Iron Fist in here, and not the Iron Fist you expect,” he said (via Variety).
The first episode, ‘Into the Lion’s Den’, travels far back in time to 1260 BC to follow Noni (Winnie Harlow), a disgraced former Dora Milaje, as she seeks out a man who goes by the name “Lion” (Cress Williams).
According to the outlet, Lion is the leader of a group of pirates, and has stolen technology from Wakanda to start his own kingdom.
There will be four episodes in total, with the stories “hop-scotching through centuries” and focusing on Wakandan agents as they retrieve stolen artefacts, with Harris describing it as “mostly a spy story.”
Although it jumps between different periods in time, there will be some threads that continue throughout, as well as some familiar Marvel characters.
As for Iron Fist – a character many fans had written off after the divisive Netflix series – the MCU has a chance to reimagine the superhero in a fresh light. Harris’s comment, “not the Iron Fist you expect,” hints at a departure from Danny Rand entirely.
In the comics, the character is a legacy role passed down over centuries, and Eyes of Wakanda’s time-jumping anthology format provides the perfect framework to explore one of those past incarnations.
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