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Eyes of Wakanda · Season 1 · Episode 4

The Last Panther

The Last Panther 2
Case File
Podcast Release
Jun 25, 2026
Media Release
August 1, 2025
In-Universe
1896 Confident
Reality
Watch Party
27:13
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Deep Dive
15:45
0:0015:45
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Synopsis

Adwa, Ethiopia, 1896. As Emperor Menelik Il's forces repel an invading Italian army in one of African history's most consequential battles, two Wakandans are running their own mission beneath the chaos. Kuda, a seasoned War Dog with hard-won perspective, leads the operation; his trainee is Prince Tafari, the king's third son, a young man who will never inherit the throne and is hungry to carve his name into history on his own terms. Their target: a vibranium axe currently stored in a house at the heart of the fighting. Tafari, driven by ambition and recklessness, ignores orders and grabs it himself. When a figure in a Black Panther suit ambushes them on the road out of Adwa and tries to take it back, the mask comes off to reveal something impossible: a Wakandan woman from five centuries in the future. She is the last Black Panther of her timeline, sent back by a dying Dora Milaje with a Quantum Scanner and one purpose: to undo a Bad Future in which an isolationist Wakanda watches the alien Horde consume the world, then falls itself.

She shows them what she has seen, and then she shows them the math. Return the axe to its hiding place in Adwa, and history threads a specific needle: the axe reaches a British museum, Killmonger eventually takes it, T'Challa's response pulls Wakanda out of isolation, and the world is ready when the Horde arrives. Keep it, and that chain breaks. They turn the car around. Tafari, who began the mission chasing glory through bold action, finds a different kind of courage: he gives the axe back, returns to Wakanda empty-handed, and stands before the Council to take the blame alone, shielding Kuda, swallowing his pride, and accepting that he will never see the future he helped secure. We close by pulling forward to the British Museum scene from Black Panther (2018), Killmonger arriving to claim the axe. The chain holds.

Reality Designation

This story takes place in the main continuity: 199999

Did You Know?

Reality numbers are Marvel's official designations.

Where a universe has no official number we follow the Marvel Database and use its Temporary Reality Number (TRN-1092). Where there is neither — official or temporary — at the time we watch it, we assign a Snark Industries number of our own (SI-001).

Characters in the Episode

Erik Killmonger
Erik Killmonger Mantle: Black Panther

Appears in the closing sequence via repurposed footage from Black Panther (2018).

The Last Panther
The Last Panther Mantle: Black Panther

Milestone: Succeeds in her final mission before being killed by The Horde

Time-displaced Queen of Wakanda from approximately 2396 CE. The last Black Panther of her timeline.

Kuda
Kuda Played by: Steve Toussaint (Voice)

Milestone: Leads Prince Tafari in a mission that secured the future

Experienced War Dog leading Tafari's training. Friendly, capable, and grounded by his family at home.

Prince Tafari
Prince Tafari Played by: Zeke Alton (Voice)

Milestone: Makes a decisive decision to replace the artifact that will allow for the continuity to proceed unharmed

The young third son of the current Wakandan family, in training as a War Dog. Witty, mischievous, and aching to make his mark on history.

Uatu
Uatu Mantle: The Watcher

Visible in the background briefly after the title sequence, observing Tafari and Kuda's escape from Adwa.

Comic Roots

Where the episode's people and places come from on the page.

The Horde

First appeared in Eternals (Vol. 3) #6 (January 2007), created by Neil Gaiman and John Romita Jr. as the central looming threat of Gaiman's seven-issue Eternals miniseries. Described in the comics as "the locusts of the universe," they are insect-like cosmic beings serving the Fulcrum, balancing the universe on the opposite side of the Celestials. They consume planetary life-force energy and have visited Earth multiple times across cosmic history. Charles and Daniel Knauf expanded the Horde storyline in Eternals (Vol. 4, 2008-2009). This episode is the Horde's first MCU appearance.

Eternals comics lore

The Horde are presented as enemies of the Celestials but instruments of the same cosmic system, the Fulcrum. Their first depicted Earth attack is roughly four billion years in the past, when they infected the Celestial Progenitor. This episode's positioning of them as an apocalyptic future threat is consistent with their comics role as a recurring cosmic doom.

Prince Tafari in comics

Tafari, the cousin of T'Challa, briefly held the Black Panther mantle in Doomwar (2010) by Jonathan Maberry. The animated Tafari is a much younger character and serves a different narrative function, but the name carries weight in Wakandan mythology.

The Snark File

Easter eggs, callbacks and technical tidbits.

Uatu

Uatu the Watcher makes a silent cameo in the background immediately after the title sequence, observing Tafari and Kuda's escape from Adwa. This is the first confirmed Watcher appearance in animated MCU Sacred Timeline material and quietly foreshadows the alternate-timeline plot. It also lays groundwork for the Watcher's expanded role across the Multiverse Saga.

The Battle of Adwa

Occurring March 1, 1896, is a real historical event. Emperor Menelik II's Ethiopian forces defeated the invading Italian army, securing Ethiopian independence and inflicting one of the most decisive defeats on European colonial expansion in Africa. Setting Tafari and Kuda's mission inside this specific battle is a deliberate choice that frames the Wakandan operation as adjacent to one of African history's great victories.

The Horde

The Horde making their MCU debut here is significant. They are one of the central threats of Neil Gaiman's Eternals run and have been speculated as a future MCU antagonist since the Eternals film teased the Celestials' cosmic conflicts. Their introduction in animated form, in a 1896 prequel, is unusually patient table-setting for what could be a future Eternals or cosmic Avengers event.

The Last Panther

The future Black Panther is the first female Black Panther in MCU primary continuity who is not T'Challa's sister. Shuri took the mantle in Wakanda Forever (2022). This Last Panther is a different Queen, from centuries beyond.

The Causal Loop

The Lion's stolen vibranium relics, scattered at the end of EP01 in 1260 BCE, complete their arc here. The series begins with the vibranium dispersed and ends with the last of it being deliberately left in the wild to set up T'Challa's reign. The entire four-episode arc is a single causal loop.

The Quantum Scanner

Draws from the Quantum Realm technology established across Ant-Man (2015), Avengers: Endgame (2019), and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023). Time travel via quantum mechanics is now a multi-era MCU technology, with the future Wakandans of 2396 CE having weaponized it for survival.