This put up incorporates spoilers for “Eyes of Wakanda.”
The subsequent entry within the Marvel Cinematic Universe has arrived with “Eyes of Wakanda,” an animated four-episode collection that takes us by means of the historical past of one of many MCU’s most mysterious areas. Moreover giving us a cool-looking new Iron Fist, the present additionally supplies perception right into a key a part of Wakanda’s historical past, together with a forgotten foe whose targets are much like these of one among Marvel’s finest dangerous guys, Erik “Killmonger” Stevens (Michael B. Jordan). On high of that, superhero followers could discover this specific villain, The Lion, sounds surprisingly much like the former principal of Garfield Excessive College in DC and CW’s Arrowverse.
A revolutionary, The Lion is introduced because the fundamental antagonist and a traitor to the once-hidden titular nation in “Eyes of Wakanda.” Certainly, the primary episode facilities on Noni (voiced by Winnie Harlow), a former member of the Dora Milaje who hopes that by concentrating on and eliminating The Lion, she will likely be allowed to rejoin the order. A intelligent and mysterious character, The Lion himself is voiced by none aside from Cress Williams, who spent years defending the town of Freeland within the Arrowverse collection “Black Lightning.”
Making his debut in 2018, Williams starred because the present’s namesake, aka Jefferson Pierce, and shortly made an affect. Ultimately, the actor’s costumed do-gooder received to share the display with different Arrowverse heroes like Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) and Wally West (Grant Gustin), beginning within the crossover TV occasion “Disaster on Infinite Earths” (which kicked off in 2019). After that, lightning struck for the final time in 2021 when “Black Lightning” wrapped up its fourth and ultimate season, with the Arrowverse following go well with in 2023.
That stated, what’s intriguing about Williams’ position right here is that, whereas he is labeled a villain, The Lion’s targets and motives appear to predate one other revolutionary determine who performs a significant position in “Eyes of Wakanda” … with out even realizing it, that’s.
Cress Williams will get additional because the Lion than Killmonger ever did
Whereas the primary episode of “Eyes of Wakanda” takes place hundreds of years earlier than the forgotten Wakandan Killmonger returned house to trigger chaos in “Black Panther,” it reveals that somebody completed elements of his purpose lengthy, lengthy earlier than he ever got here alongside. As Williams’ The Lion explains to Noni, all those that observe him achieve this by alternative. Not solely that, however The Lion’s acolytes are additionally supplied with freedoms and entry to Wakanda technological advances that his house nation would not have in any other case supplied to them. It makes Williams’ character a compelling antagonist within the brief time he seems on the present, with the actor brilliantly bringing the identical stage of stoicism and gravitas to his position that he did as Jefferson Pierce throughout all 4 seasons of “Black Lightning.”
Greater than that, The Lion proves that for so long as Wakanda tried to maintain itself eliminated and remoted from the remainder of the world, it was inevitable the nation would finally step into the sunshine and kind connections with others. That additionally makes it all of the extra important when the present’s ultimate episode reveals the artifact Killmonger admired within the Museum of Nice Britain in “Black Panther” was the final stolen merchandise the Wakandan warriors referred to as Conflict Canines had been meant to get well. This, in flip, transforms the ornate hammer right into a figurative torch handed by means of the ages from one Wakandan revolutionary to a different, making Williams’ Lion the proper antagonist for the story being informed right here.
“Eyes of Wakanda” is now streaming on Disney+.
