Eyes Of Wakanda Teases A Massive Marvel Event With Big Easter Egg

This article contains spoilers for "Eyes of Wakanda."

Comic book movies and television shows are always grasping at the feeling of "epic" storytelling, but live-action budgets and precious runtime often thwart these plans before they can even get rolling. In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, a lot of massive fan-favorite moments occur because there's been a lot of build-up ahead of time. But, "Eyes of Wakanda" is the latest show from Marvel Animation that shows how the studio could be building toward a massive crossover moment without the burden of squaring that with the larger MCU. The last episode of the Marvel event series, titled "The Last Panther," sprinkles in more teases for a large-scale animation throwdown with an appearance from The Watcher during a crucial moment of the story.

"The Last Panther" introduces us to Prince Tafari and Kuda, who are on a mission to reclaim stolen vibranium artifacts. Of course, their mission is more complicated than it seems, as a random stranger with a technologically advanced suit turns up to stop them from stealing a vibranium axe back from Ethiopia. The core conflict of the episode comes into focus when the duo discovers that this cloaked figure is the titular "Last Panther," aka the Queen of Wakanda from the far-flung future. The Watcher, a big cosmic figure in the Marvel Comics pantheon, is on hand as these Wakandan spies try to ensure that the apocalyptic future that the Last Panther comes from doesn't come to pass.

The Watcher only shows up for "capital M" moments in Marvel continuity, as this race of beings is present to record important historical occurrences in every universe. Audiences know that The Watcher appearing in any way signifies that things just got real, and The Last Panther's story about Earth being overcome by insectoid aliens also hammers this fact home. For the first couple of episodes, "Eyes of Wakanda" feels like the kind of multiverse story that Marvel has been playing around with for about half a decade now. There are very few tangible links to the MCU that we've been watching since 2008's "Iron Man." But "The Last Panther" directly leads to "Black Panther," and that memorable scene with Michael B. Jordan's Erik Killmonger sitting in a museum. 

This animated adventure also heralds another possible crossover moment, if Marvel chooses to pursue it.

"Eyes of Wakanda" is just the latest instance of Uatu, aka The Watcher, popping up in a Marvel Animation project, with more recent examples being in "X-Men '97" and "Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man." Uatu also starred in "Marvel's What If...?" during seasons 1, 2, and 3 on Disney+, and that show helped introduce the concept of The Watcher to fans who might not have been familiar with his presence in the Marvel Comics. But, there's no question that the repeat sightings have become a thread that some fans are following, and they're stacking up. I talked to "X-Men '97" director Jake Castorena at ComicBook about Uatu's cameo during that animated show's run.

Castorena explained, "Yeah, it's a very subtle thing, and The Watcher only shows up for seminal, you know, timeline or sacred stuff. So, it's definitely less about being there to support and help the X-Men." He admitted, "But, more or less, to just kind of be like, 'Hey, you know, it's got to happen.' So, someone's gotta watch this ..."

From the earliest moments of "Marvel's What If...?," fans began to wonder if they would see these versions of the characters pop up in other places, and that's certainly the case for The Watcher. Calls for an animated Marvel feature grew louder after "X-Men '97" hit Disney+, as the series might be the most well-regarded title in the entire Marvel lineup after "Avengers: Endgame." The seeds have been planted, and Marvel can act if they feel like it at any time. In fact, there's already one destination where we'll probably see some of these characters appear sooner than you would think.

At the height of the multiverse-mania that continues to grip so many studios, Disney announced Avengers: Infinity Defense at D23. The ride focused on bringing together a wide number of different heroes to fight against an alternate reality version of Thanos. Now, that attraction is closer to completion than ever, and it would make the most logical place for "The Last Panther" and The Watcher to appear again. In addition, it seems likely that the Spider-Man from "Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man" and the mutants from "X-Men '97" will also probably cameo in that ride. While it's going to be fun to see the different variant heroes like Captain America and Iron Man throw down, there's a neat bit of convergence with the animated side of things.

Marvel Animation's biggest strength is that they can draw from the long publishing history of Marvel Comics, and do so without being completely beholden to the MCU's larger narrative. An animated X-Men, Spider-Man, and Avengers team-up sounds wild, but also a little too good to be true? The Avengers Campus ride might be the best of what's actually possible, and we're hoping it still happens. (That attraction has been in development almost as long as the Multiverse Saga has been around, so it's good to see it actually happening.) Still, seeing The Watcher's weird little Marvel universe tour continue is a nice subplot that rewards fans who have watched all these different shows and movies. That's epic enough for the time being.