Before Avengers: Endgame, before Marvel TV’s Disney+ era began, before Marvel Animation even really became a thing, storyboard artist Todd Harris had a vision of Wakanda.

A student of history and a longtime fan of Marvel — “since before I was allowed to be left alone in a comic book store,” he says — Harris sought to mash both of those themes together, combining what he calls “the interconnectivity of Marvel with the interconnectivity of history along with the interconnectivity of the human story.

“They let me go hog wild,” he tells Entertainment Weekly in an exclusive interview. The result became Eyes of Wakanda, an animated series for Disney+ about various warriors of the fictional African nation throughout history.

“I really liked the idea of everyone’s view of history,” Harris, who serves as showrunner and director, continues. “The story starts off during the end of the Western Bronze Age, and that spark sets off this giant spy-espionage story that reverberates through time…. You get Wakanda-grade James Bond, and sometimes a Jane Bond, with the backdrop of all the awesomeness that is Wakanda.”

EW’s exclusive first look at the series reveals some of the warriors we’ll meet. Harris sets expectations of how much he’s able to reveal: “We try to mirror the actual spirit of the nation of Wakanda by keeping as many secrets as possible.” However, we do know the story involves the Hatut Zaraze, which translates as “Dogs of War” in the Wakandan language. These CIA-esque defense divisions attempt to recover Vibranium artifacts from Wakanda’s enemies.

“When an inciting incident releases some of these things into the wild, they’ve got to, in a very hush hush kind of way, make sure that these things don’t turn into a bigger problem,” Harris says. “We saw what happened when one disc got into the hands of one Super Soldier — it changed the course of the world.”

Cress Williams (Black Lightning) voices a character known as the Lion, while Winnie Harlow (America’s Next Top Model) voices a character named Noni. Other confirmed voice cast includes Patricia Belcher, Larry Herron, Adam Gold, Lynn Whitfield, Jacques Colimon, Jona Xiao, Isaac Robinson-Smith, Gary Anthony Williams, and Zeke Alton.

Harris also teases Anika Noni Rose, the Princess and the Frog Disney legend herself, has “such a crucial role in the show.” He says, “She’s one of the ones I want to get a toy made of the most. She came in there like an archangel and just blew the scene away.”

House of the Dragon star Steve Toussaint adds to this roster of voice talent, and Harris notes how he brings all the same cool energy that he brought to the Game of Thrones prequel. “He’s an authoritative character that has so much heart and soul,” the showrunner explains. “He plays a jaded agent who is jaded for all the right reasons. He believes in his job, he’s here for his family, and he’s so devoted to the cause, but sometimes principles outweigh duty. [Toussaint’s] so good at threading that needle between that hard and soft.”

Harris describes Eyes of Wakanda as “anthology adjacent.” It’s a collection of short stories set at different time periods that all tell one continuous narrative. It’s the equivalent, Harris says, of visiting the British Isles during the time of King Arthur and then returning during the Industrial. “Same country, two different worlds,” he explains. “As we make our touchstones through time, we get to see that kind of evolution.”

The show will be less about the great-great-great ancestor of some Wakandan character (though there is some of that) and more about principles. “We have characters that are very important in the show, but it also examines what kind of person Wakanda makes,” Harris says. “A 10,000-year-old society. What kind of fortitude, what kind of lack of temptation to over expand? All these different things to keep things from imploding, all these different things that have been the detriment to a lot of history…how did they avoid that and what kind of person does that make? What kind of rock-solid principles keeps them on the straight and narrow that balance that’s so hard for everyone alive?”

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And it won’t just be characters rooted in Wakanda that we’ll meet. The team revealed earlier at various events, including the D23 Expo, that figures like an Iron Fist will pop up. EW’s first look also glimpses characters from a variety of backgrounds, including one woman channeling Viking shield maiden garb.

“We’re all in this together and history has proven that,” Harris muses. “We like to think there are silos of people in history, but there’s the Fertile Crescent; the Mediterranean; the intersections between Eurasia, Asia, north Africa, and all the different cultures that all created this mesh. That’s what that imagery is supposed to invoke: It’s not a rare circumstance that we’re all here again together.”

In that regard, Eyes of Wakanda is “a globe-trotting adventure,” Harris continues. “There’s a couple of surprises because part of the opportunity here is to sprinkle little pieces of history and go, ‘I didn’t know that happened.’ Part of it is holding a mirror up to some historical theories and some historical facts and some historical preconceived notions.”

Eyes of Wakanda will premiere this August on Disney+.