Black Panther Series Eyes of Wakanda Announced with Spider-Man Name Change

Television

Marvel is bringing out the big guns for its next Disney+ show – or, at least, parts of a disassembled big gun. At a press screening of the first two episodes of What It…? season 2, Marvel unveiled their 2024 Disney+ slate, and it included a new animated series called Eyes of Wakanda. This will be a spin-off of Black Panther taking place in the past as Wakandan warriors “travel the world retrieving dangerous vibranium artifacts,” with Okoye being one of them (but not T’Challa). Presumably, this is the show Marvel said Ryan Coogler was developing for them. They also revealed that Spider-Man: Freshman Year will now be called Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man.

Eyes of Wakanda doesn’t sound very interesting to me. It seems like a way of stretching the Black Panther brand as far as it can go, especially now that they’ve killed off T’Challa. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever made money at the box office, but it was significantly less successful than Black Panther, and with the MCU’s downward trend, it’s unlikely a third film would pick up where the sequel floundered. An animated series is cheaper to make than Black Panther 3 (even with the way Marvel throws money around), and it would keep the Black Panther title in play, even though T’Challa and Shuri aren’t in it. Elsewhere,  I suspect the name change from Spider-Man: Freshman Year to Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man has to do with the uncertainty of the series being successful enough to warrant a Spider-Man: Sophomore Year, given how poorly Disney+ shows have been doing. Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man doesn’t suggest a follow-up in the same way Freshman Year does, but it doesn’t preclude one either; Marvel has more options based on how well Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man is received. Title changes and big-name superheroes notwithstanding, Marvel’s got its work cut out for it convincing fans to give these shows a try.