Marvel’s Eyes Of Wakanda Composer Hesham Nazih | Exclusive Interview

August 10, 2025 Roger Palmer

This month, Marvel Animation released a brand new show on Disney+ around the world called “Eyes Of Wakanda”, which follows the adventures of brave Wakandan warriors throughout history. In this globe-trotting adventure, the heroes must carry out dangerous missions to retrieve Vibranium artefacts.

Recently, I spoke with Hesham Nazih, the composer for the new Marvel Disney+ Original series “Eyes Of Wakanda”, about the differences between creating music for live-action shows like “Moon Knight” and animated shows, among other projects.

Hesham Nazih’s score blends instruments and vocal textures from a range of global traditions, including flutes, strings, deep percussion, and experimental vocals, many used for the first time in his work. Each of the four episodes features a distinct musical identity, building toward an epic final chapter.

Where did the inspiration for the soundtrack for the series come from?

Oh, OK. Well, multiple of triggers, really. So I think it’s the nature of the story and the style of the storytelling, and then there are the visuals, the location, the places we go, and lots of triggers that helped me find the right tools and the right musical expressions. And it’s fun!

Did the “Black Panther” movies influence the score as well?

Apart from feeling this is a great score, no. It’s an incredible score, but… I mean, just by listening, it will inspire. But no, I decided to go…as it was the first time, the first score done for a composer. Incredible. Yeah. It’s not based on it. It’s one of the things that helped me believe that it is possible to do something cool. So I can do something cool as well. And the show obviously takes place in multiple different countries. But it’s an attractive aspect of the story. It happens everywhere in the world in the very ancient era.

How long were you working on “Eyes Of Wakanda” overall?

About six months, seven maybe. As far as I recall, yeah. Seven months, six months, somewhere around that.

What was the difference between working on Moon Knight and an animated Marvel show?

Oh, that’s a totally different realm and world and zone of existence. Because it’s, well, this is the first, that was the first time for me. And I had zero experience in it. And I thought. Oh, OK, it’ll look the way it looks on screen normally. I was kind of unaware of the process. So the progress of the picture itself and the musical progress. And I found myself since writing music, for instance, fights with the characters. And I said, whoa, whoa, whoa, this is too much. I need to tone it down. And then I toned it down too much. So I said, Oh, bring back some of that back. It was a learning curve for me to find the right tone for them for the scenes. And then when I received more developed versions of the picture, and I found the colors, and towards the ending when I received the stunning visuals, the stunning colors, and I thought to myself, wow, I need to redo everything from the top because the picture is so gorgeous, the music feels so thin, and it was so much fun.

Would you like to work on more animated projects or video games in the future?

Absolutely. It’s so much fun. You know, part of the magic is that you grow feelings and emotional ties to characters. You know, if they don’t exist, they’re not real people. Some drawings, and it’s fantastic, and that’s the magic of the storytelling and the visuals.

What was one of your biggest highlights working on “Eyes Of Wakanda”?

I enjoyed writing music that I have never done before. Writing action as a musical is something I’ve never tried before. For instance, I’ve written action scenes using Asian instruments that I have never used before, as well as emotional and love scenes that incorporate African and Asian instruments. Unusual vocal bits and vocal passages. It was all new to me. African music is so new to me. So yeah, I would say this is the highlight of me working on “Eyes of Wakanda”, stepping into a totally new musical territory.

What was the biggest challenge working on “Eyes of Wakanda”?

I always say the same, exactly the same. This is all new. I need to do something good. I know Wakanda is big. I mean, everybody loves it. Everybody. And I know, I need to remove from my thinking, from my thought process, everything that would obstruct or make me have a coffee to do something, touch this or touch that, I need to liberate myself from any preconceived notion, as they call it, before working. And the challenging bit is to step into this new musical territory to me and do something fresh, new, good and cool. That was challenging. That’s cool.

Is there any other Marvel characters that you’d like to work with in the future?

All of them. All of them. They are all so cool. I mean, yeah. It’s the storytelling, the way they tell the story. That’s what really gets me. I was like, wow. I didn’t see this coming. That’s what’s really cool.

Check out the full interview below: