Because after months of murmurings and a few quietly dropped teaser images, Marvel has finally unleashed the full official trailer for Eyes of Wakanda — and it's glorious, bloody, and long overdue. The posters? Visually thunderous. The tone? Somewhere between mythic vengeance and globe-trotting espionage. Think Samurai Jack meets Black Panther meets that gritty Wakandan side lore you always knew had sharper teeth than the MCU ever let on.
Streaming worldwide on Disney+ starting August 1, 2025, this animated anthology series digs deep — centuries deep — into the secret missions of Wakanda's Hatut Zeraze (yes, those guys), also known as the War Dogs. The ones who fight in the shadows. Who never get monuments. The ones who bleed for vibranium.
Finally, a War Dog's Story Worth Barking About
Let's be blunt: the Black Panther films — brilliant as they are — have only scratched the vibranium-laced surface of Wakandan history. Eyes of Wakanda, developed by Ryan Coogler and his Proximity Media banner, aims to change that. This isn't just another Marvel spinoff — it's a full-on war chronicle disguised as animated myth.
Over four self-contained episodes, we follow different Hatut Zeraze across eras and continents as they retrieve vibranium artifacts “from enemies of Wakanda.” Translation? This is Wakandan black-ops across the ages, with spears, tech, claws, and moral gray zones aplenty.
And the animation? Directed and showrun by Todd Harris — a name some of you might not know, but should. Harris has storyboarded everything from John Wick to Black Panther to Bullet Train, and his eye for motion and violence translates beautifully into animation. The man draws like he's lived through a knife fight. This series feels lived in.
Voices Behind the Masks
The voice cast is, quite frankly, a surprise attack of cool:
- Winnie Harlow plays Noni, whose design alone looks like it could launch an entirely new Marvel franchise.
- Cress Williams (yes, Black Lightning) voices “The Lion” — a moniker that already sounds like someone who doesn't blink when decapitating enemies.
- Danai Gurira returns as Okoye, and every time she speaks, it feels like cinematic gravity shifts.
- Also joining: Anika Noni Rose, Steve Toussaint, Jacques Colimon, Jona Xiao, Zeke Alton, Gary Anthony Williams, and Lynn Whitfield, just to name a few.
Each story is penned by Geoffrey Thorne, whose work on Avengers: Black Panther's Quest and Green Lantern comics shows he knows how to write layered warriors — not just stoic archetypes.
Aesthetics of War: Posters That Speak
Marvel also dropped official posters, and look — I don't usually get precious about promo art, but these? These posters speak. Each one is a visual war cry, with characters mid-motion, bathed in fiery reds and ancient golds. The typography alone feels hand-forged, like you're staring at the etchings on a sacred blade. It's that serious.
The Bigger Play: Marvel Animation Gets Dangerous
Let's not pretend Eyes of Wakanda is just content filler between bigger MCU phases. This is Marvel Animation playing with fire — and maybe, finally, embracing the medium's potential for storytelling that doesn't feel sanitized or tonally flattened for a PG-13 audience. This isn't “Saturday morning cartoon” Marvel. This is “your kid asks what colonialism is after episode two” Marvel.
It reminds me a bit of Star Wars: Visions — not just because it's anthological, but because it carries that same energy of creators being let off the corporate leash. You can feel it in the trailer's pacing, in the character silhouettes, in how seriously it treats the legacy of violence.
Look Closer: It's About History, Not Just Action
Behind the spears and standoffs, Eyes of Wakanda is asking a deeper question — what does it mean to protect something across centuries? Who gets erased in the process? Who remembers the names of those who kept the monsters at bay long before T'Challa?
There's something quietly devastating about that premise… and kind of beautiful too. I've seen this before in indie comics and the more experimental corners of Afrofuturism — works that understand that legacy isn't clean or heroic, but messy and burdened. If Eyes of Wakanda leans into that complexity? It could be Marvel Animation's most important project to date.
Final Thought (Before I Rewatch That Trailer Again…)
If you're burnt out on capes and crossover cameos — I get it. But Eyes of Wakanda doesn't feel like the same old formula. It feels like a warrior's tale that never got told. Until now.
Watch the trailer. Gaze at the posters. Then mark your calendar:
Disney+ drops all episodes on August 1st, 2025. No filler. Just four punchy, potent chapters of Wakandan lore.
And if this hits the way I think it might?
We'll be talking about the War Dogs for a long time to come.
