Marvel Animation's Black Panther spinoff series follows the adventures of the Hatut Zeraze throughout the history of Wakanda.
They are the warriors who have protected Wakanda forever: the Hatut Zeraze. Disney+'s animated MCU series Eyes of Wakanda, which is executive produced by Black Panther filmmaker Ryan Coogler, will reveal the history of the warriors who fought to safeguard the Kingdom of Wakanda and its natural resource: Vibranium, the rarest metal on Earth and the strongest substance in the universe.
While Vibranium has been used to create such objects as Captain America's shield, the body of the synthezoid Vision, Riri Williams' Mark II Ironheart Armor, and Sam Wilson's winged Captain America suit, the Hatut Zeraze spent centuries keeping "Isipho" (as its known in Xhosa) out of the hands of Wakanda's worst enemies.
The four-episode event series from Marvel Animation "follows the adventures of brave Wakandan warriors throughout history," per the official synopsis. "In this globe-trotting adventure, the heroes must carry out dangerous missions to retrieve Vibranium artifacts from the enemies of Wakanda. They are the Hatut Zeraze and this is their story."
"Eyes of Wakanda is an MCU show," Brad Winderbaum, Marvel Studios' Head of Streaming, Television and Animation, previously told ComicBook about the Black Panther spinoff series. "This is the history of Wakanda as told through the War Dogs, and it is some of the best animation we've ever done. Todd Harris is the creator of that one. That's just such a cool show."
Harris pitched the idea to Coogler and Feige during the making of 2018's Avengers: Infinity War, which featured an action sequence on the battlefields of Wakanda. "Todd is one of the most incredible story artists in the world," Coogler said during D23. "[He did] a lot of the action sequences in some of your guys' favorite films, and a bunch of them in mine, so I was always blown away by his idea and the story. And I knew that with him at the helm, as a director, as a showrunner, could be just fantastic. It's proved to be just that."
Beyond the history of Wakanda, Harris teased that the series will travel to K'un-Lun, one of the Seven Capital Cities of Heaven and home to the legendary protectors of K'un-Lun: the immortal Iron Fist. "It's a love letter to what a culture can be when they draw a line in the sand about, 'You will not cross here, and we will not go over there,'" Harris said. "But they're focused on being the best versions of themselves throughout history. You have your defectors, and you have people who bucked the system, and what does that mean to Wakanda, and what does that mean for the world? Those are the things I'm excited to show as we move forward through the series."
The centuries-spanning series will explore what Harris called "intersection points" from the history of the MCU. "The show does a beautiful job of exploring one faction of Wakanda's society, the Hatut Zeraze, or the War Dogs," Coogler added. "These are the figures who are challenged with the burden of keeping Wakanda a secret. So what Todd has done is actually gone across history and paid attention to certain characters that actually paid the price for that secrecy."