Marvel Studios is making a Black Panther prequel set squarely in the MCU with the Eyes of Wakanda series

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You can understand why, to the casual viewer, the MCU might seem less important to Marvel Animation. Their biggest recent hit, X-Men '97, is most certainly not set within the same world as the live-action Marvel Studios films, and neither is the upcoming Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man. Even What If...?, the show that brings back MCU actors to their respective roles, hinges on events that are only canon to the MCU in a multiversal sense. But there's at least one animated project that's staying well within the bounds of the MCU - in fact, it's going to expand them. That's Eyes of Wakanda, as Marvel Studios' head of streaming, television, and animation Brad Winderbaum recently told an interviewer.

Speaking on the July 3 episode of The Official Marvel Podcast, Winderbaum touched on the still mysterious Wakanda based show, teasing a historical epic that will take viewers to unexplored, but still in-canon, MCU territory.

"Eyes of Wakanda," says Winderbaum, "more than any other show -- we're doing an animation [that] ties directly into the MCU. This is a story about Wakandan history."

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Later, Winderbaum drove the point home again, saying, "[Eyes of Wakanda is] both about the history of Wakanda, but it also expands into the greater MCU at different time periods. So if you're a fan of the movies, I think this show's gonna be a real treat."

If you're going to take a look at the MCU through a historical lens, going through the Wakanda is a pretty great way to do it, as the concepts we're introdced to in Black Panther have been around for centuries by the time audiences got to them. And speaking of Black Panther history, Eyes of Wakanda will also be bringing some real-life figures back to the MCU, as Winderbaum also was kind enough to share.

"It's produced by Ryan Coogler," he says, "directed by Todd Harris, who is one of our longtime storyboard artists. You know, I first met [him] when he designed the Hulk Vs. Thor fight in Ragnarok. It's an awesome show. The action is insane. The storytelling is fantastic."

If it really is like the Wakanda we saw in the MCU, that tracks.

Keep up to date on Popverse's Marvel coverage, with these highlights: Disney CEO Bob Iger is promising Deadpool & Wolverine will be MCU's biggest movie "in a long time", how Marvel Studios is now working "much more closely" to sell Marvel comics, how Marvel Comics' boss said it was lost in 2023 (and how its finding itself again), Inside Marvel Comics' plans to fix its pricing issues, Overgrown children of the atom: Marvel's X-Men can't evolve past their '90s commercial peak, and the biggest outstanding questions of the Marvel Studios' movies & TV shows.