Though 2023 has been a rough year for Marvel Studios, it’s not like the studio is giving up and shutting down shop. There are still an absolute ton of new projects on the horizon for the biggest franchise in cinema history, and one, relatively small, branch of this massive cinematic universe is the animated series that are being produced. So far, we’ve only seen one season of “What If…?” but we are on the verge of Season 2 dropping. And to celebrate, Marvel Studios has pulled back the curtain on what other animated projects are on the horizon, including the first “Black Panther” spinoff.
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At an event celebrating the impending release of “What If…?” Season 2, Marvel Studios decided to tease a couple of other animated projects on the horizon. The first bits of news aren’t really all that exciting, but more admin stuff. It was confirmed that a Season 3 of “What If…?” is in the works. And the previously announced “Spider-Man: Freshman Year” is now titled “Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man,” but it will seemingly still serve as a prequel to “Spider-Man: Homecoming.” 
While that news is all well and good (the ‘Spider-Man’ series, in particular, looks like it’ll be a lot of fun), the big announcement was confirmation that a “Black Panther” animated spinoff is in the works. The series, titled “Eyes of Wakanda,” is currently in development and will serve as a way to expand the world of “Black Panther” in new ways, seemingly with some new characters being introduced. Here’s the brief synopsis for “Eyes of Wakanda”: “Throughout Wakandan history, brave warriors have been tasked to travel the world retrieving dangerous vibranium artifacts. This is their story.”
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Obviously, outside of the confirmation that the series exists, as well as the synopsis, nothing else was really said about the show. That said, considering the “Black Panther” franchise continues to be a high-water mark for the MCU in recent years, this is great news. The world of Wakanda has already been fleshed out in fun and exciting ways, but it definitely feels as if there is just so much more to dig into with that society. And considering we aren’t quite sure what the future of the “Black Panther” franchise looks like after ‘Wakanda Forever,’ at least we know that more stories from that world are going to be told sooner than later. 
Now, unfortunately there’s no release date given for “Eyes of Wakanda,” but we do know it’s happening. The process of bringing animation to the world is clearly something that takes quite a bit of time, so unless they’re already really far along, we have to assume this ‘Wakanda’ show is a “2025 and beyond”-type thing. We’ll just have to wait and see.