Marvel Studios development executive Brad Winderbaum recently spoke with Men's Health Magazine to promote the recent release of X-Men '97 (which has debuted as the highest-rated Marvel project of all-time) but the conversation revealed some interesting tidbits about two other upcoming animated Marvel shows, Eyes of Wakanda and Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man.
While touching on the overall vision for Marvel Animation, Winderbaum revealed that Ryan Coogler's Eyes of Wakanda will be canon to the MCU. You can check out Winderbaum's tease for Marvel's exciting plans for its animation division, below.
We're exploring so many amazing avenues on the animated side. Eyes of Wakanda, more than any other show, fits right into our sacred MCU timeline continuity. [Black Panther director Ryan Coogler] is a producer on it, Todd Harris is one of our long-time storyboard artists who directs it. It's about Wakandan history and mythology, and it's really cool. It looks amazing. And it feels like, 'Okay I'm getting an animated look into the MCU.'
There's also a third season of What If...? with Bryan Andrews leading the charge, whose been there from the beginning. And without spoiling anything, that's where we start to feel crossover potential with animated projects. We've got Marvel Zombies coming down the road. And Jeff Trammell's Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, which I'm going into a sound mix for in a couple of hours. It's so great. He and his team over there, they know how to make you invest in characters. It's a very high school, ensemble-driven show with Peter Parker at the center. It's just so much fun.
It's good to see Marvel re-exploring its animation side after there was a long hiatus with its direct-to-video animated films and more mature animated series.
In the early 2000s, Marvel had a string of well-received DTV animated films such as Ultimate Avengers, Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow and Hulk vs. These animated features led into the excellent The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes animated series which aired on Disney XD.
However, there was a notable drop in quality and adult-oriented animated projects from Marvel, entering into the next decade. Based on Winderbaum's above comments, it seems the success of What If...? has Marvel ready to ramp up its animation side.
Are you looking forward to Eyes of Wakanda and Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man? There's also the forthcoming Marvel Zombies animated series that Winderbaum teased. Let us know the project you're most excited for in the comment section below.