Eyes of Wakanda creator talks expanding the world of Black Panther, as animated show gets early p...

All four episodes will now drop on Disney&43; this Aug. 1, EW can report. Eyes of Wakanda creator talks expanding the world of Black Panther, as animated show g

All four episodes will now drop on Disney+ this Aug. 1, EW can report.

Eyes of Wakanda creator talks expanding the world of Black Panther, as animated show gets early premiere (exclusive)

All four episodes will now drop on Disney+ this Aug. 1, EW can report.

By Nick Romano

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Published on July 24, 2025 09:00AM EDT

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The Lion (Cress Williams) in 'Eyes of Wakanda'. Credit:

Todd Harris is currently riding "the wave of chaos" when it comes to *Eyes of Wakanda*, his four-part Marvel animated series coming to Disney+ next month.

The showrunner and director has eagerly awaited the moment when he can finally talk about the project he started conceiving back before *Avengers: Endgame*, after director Ryan Coogler's *Black Panther* hit. Harris debuted the series' first episode at the Annecy Animation Festival earlier this year, but opportunities to unpack his work have been few and far between.

"The highs and lows [of anticipation], when it's coming out, when we completed it, public perception, when we can talk about all those kinds of things.... There's been so many ups and downs in the waves of those that I've just become numb to it," he tells **.

Noni (Winnie Harlow) and the Lion (Cress Williams) in 'Eyes of Wakanda'.

The time, however, has finally come — sooner than previously thought. EW can exclusively confirm that *Eyes of Wakanda* will now premiere all four of its half-hour episodes on Aug. 1, weeks ahead of the previously announced Aug. 27 launch.

Harris sits down with EW over Zoom on the Tuesday before San Diego Comic-Con, where he plans to appear this Friday from 11:30 a.m.-noon PT at the Marvel booth (#2329) for a special signing.

"My goal for the whole show was to do the thing that a movie has trouble doing, which is making the world bigger," he explains of his mission. "It is a nation with multiple zip codes. It was mostly just expanding the backdrop of the world that Ryan was able to establish, with just a little bit more time and a few more opportunities at the watering hole. These things have been around for this long, really spreading out the mythology of Wakanda."

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The first episode centers on Noni (Winnie Harlow), a former member of Wakanda's Dora Milaje and a prospective new candidate for the Hatut Zaraze, who are basically Wakanda's MI6. Noni is "a James Bond version of a Dora who just doesn't tow the company line," Harris mentions.

In the year 1260 B.C., Noni is tasked with taking down a man known as the Lion (Cress Williams), a former Wakandan who took their nation's coveted technology and transformed himself into a warlord. He has his conquering eye set on Crete in Greece, and Noni must retrieve the artifacts he stole.

"We always knew we needed an inciting incident," Harris says. "I kind of went off of *Apocalypse Now*. What if Wakanda turned into their Colonel? That combined with a Thulsa Doom, an Atlantian in *Conan* who was from a much older civilization, who created as an empire off of the existing world. So with those two themes going into it, that's the kind of thing that would bring Wakanda into the situation where legitimate resources have to be put towards it."

The Lion (Cress Williams) roars in 'Eyes of Wakanda'.

The events of this episode ripple throughout history — and not just Marvel history. Each episode of *Eyes of Wakanda* takes place in a completely different time period and location, sometimes decades or hundreds of years apart. It's the idea that history is often written by the victors, and Harris attempts to tell the true story of these Wakandan heroes.

"People pull truth out of history, and it might not necessarily be objective truth, but it's theirs," Harris explains. "And also, people who try to make events happen give it a personal context. The quote [from the show], 'It's written by people who weren't there and didn't have anything to do with it,' but they're trying to make that story mean something to them. So that's an interesting needle to thread throughout the series. And then we have some episodes where we do that, and then we kind of back off a little bit and get a little bit more Marvel with it, and then jump back into it."

In addition to Harlow and Williams, the cast includes Patricia Belcher, Larry Herron, Adam Gold, Lynn Whitfield, Jacques Colimon, Jona Xiao, Isaac Robinson-Smith, Gary Anthony Williams, Zeke Alton, Steve Toussaint, and Anika Noni Rose. **

Harris also previously confirmed that a certain Iron Fist appears in *Eyes of Wakanda*, though not the Iron Fist fans might be expecting. Harris recalls how he and the other writers, including Marc Bernardin and Geoffrey Thorne, would reach "to the weird corners in the Marvel universe to see what we can get away with."

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And, yes, there's a lot of action. He points to Noni, in particular, and how she'll show audiences "what a brave ass-whooping looks like."

"That's kind of the point of the show," Harris adds, "that even the pastry chef of Wakanda will beat all the ass in the world."

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