ONE EYE ON THE PAST

ARTIST TODD HARRIS EXPLAINS THE LONG ROAD HE TRAVELLED TO CREATE THE ANIMATED SERIES EYES OF WAKANDA

- TODD HARRIS

SINCE ITS OFFICIAL LAUNCH IN 2021 with What If...?, Marvel Animation has been quite a busy division of Marvel Studios. Under the guidance of Brad Winderbaum, Head of Streaming, Television and Animation, and Dana Vasquez-Eberhardt, Vice President of Animation, it has released three Marvel Cinematic Universe-set series and the revival series X-Men '97, all through Disney+.

The latest, Eyes Of Wakanda, is Marvel Animation's first collaboration with Ryan Coogler's Proximity Media. After the success of Coogler's live action Black Panther (2018), they entered a development deal to create new series set in and around the fictional country of Wakanda.

As is often the case with projects at Marvel Studios, ideas can gestate until the timing is right. This was exactly the case for storyboard artist Todd Harris. He joined the visual development team storyboarding sequences for their live action films, starting with Thor: Ragnarok, and worked alongside Bryan Andrews, who would go on to direct What If...?. While they were both storyboarding sequences for Avengers: Infinity War, Harris tells SFX, he knew Black Panther was in production. So he took a chance pitching an animated Wakanda series to President of Marvel Studios, Kevin Feige, way before "the magic of Marvel Animation was even a glimmer in someone's eyes".

“He took my pitch and gave me a nice response,” Harris remembers of Feige's reply. “I really appreciated him hearing me, then we got back to making Infinity War.”

HISTORY REPEATING

Harris went on to storyboard for Coogler's Black Panther, where he took another shot at sharing his idea with the director. “I pitched Ryan because I believed in the concept and I really wanted to see it made, even if I wasn't going to be the one that helmed it,” he explains. “12-year-old me wanted to see the story.”