Following the events of Avengers: Endgame, an unforeseen disaster causes The Eternals to emerge from the darkness to face humanity’s oldest foe, The Deviants.
Marvel Studios recently unveiled their MCU Phase 4 teaser, ‘See you at the movies.’ The teaser not only shows solidarity with the wounded world that’s slowly recovering after a year of the pandemic but also with the movie theatres around the world. The Phase 4 trailer highlighted Black Widow, Shan-Chi, Eternals’ teaser and gave us titles like Wakanda Forever and release dates. While this was our first look at any kind of footage from Eternals, it corroborated heavily one leak that came a couple of months ago.
Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige announced in April 2018 that a film based on the Eternals comic book and concept was in the works. Academy award winner Chloe Zhao took over as director shortly after. And even though Thanos is the first Eternal we’ve seen in the MCU, the cosmic species have a comic history spanning thousands of years. In 1976, Eternals were created six years after Jack Kirby, co-creator of the Avengers, Fantastic Four, and X-Men, created the somewhat similar New Gods for DC.
Watch: Marvel Studios’ Eternals Teaser | Disney+
Eternal’s Teaser & The Leak (Spoilers Alert)
In the new teaser we officially see the huge ensemble Marvel has gathered for its new superhero team. We get a good look at Salma Hayek, Angelina Jolie, Kumail Nanjiani, Richard Madden, Gemma Chan and others. Zhao brought the western aesthetic from Nomadland to MCU as we see Hayek on a horse in the desert. A closeup of Jolie is seen wielding a sword. Nanjiani seems to embrace the Bollywood appeal as well. The trailer opens with Hayek’s voiceover and ends with Chan’s words.
However, a past leak (Video Below) clearly describes the aesthetics and many plot points that are now clear with the teaser. Like Hayek’s western setting, Kit Harrington and Chans’ romance and regular life. The leak goes on to say Hayek (Ajak) will be dead at the start of the movie and hence Madden (Ikaris) will go on to assemble the Eternals. He would eventually turn out to be the bad guy. The Deviants and Celestial too make up a good part of the said plot leak.
Watch: Eternals PLOT LEAK PROVEN REAL! Marvel’s Eternal MCU Phase 4
While Eternals’ teaser and the leak come too close to be true it has to be taken with a pinch of salt. Ideally, for the studio to associate a character with an actor of Hayek’s potential just to kill it off… doesn’t make sense on many levels.
Who are the Eternals?
Marvel head Feige and director Zhao both on occasion have weaved stories about the history of Eternals and that is yet to unfold in the MCU. Zhao Spoke about how she incorporated her “deep, heavy, manga roots” into Eternals in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter in September. “I’m excited to push more of the marriage of East and West,” she said, pointing out that the film is about humanity’s past. “After Endgame, how much bigger and further will we go?”
The Eternals are a race of fantastically powerful proto-humans designed by the Celestials (more on them later) to harness vast quantities of “cosmic energy,” based on characters and circumstances created by Jack Kirby. There were generations of infighting and battles against the Deviants, another Celestial experiment.
Sersi (Gemma Chan), an Eternal with the abilities of flight, strength, immortality, and molecular manipulation, will be the central character in the film. They’re an evolutionary offshoot of mankind who live on Earth and have greater abilities and longer lifespans, according to the comics. They were founded by the Celestials, a community of space gods, to protect Earth.
Eternals was shot differently from previous Marvel films, according to Salma Hayek, who spoke to Variety in January. “It’s in real places,” she said, “and they discovered some wild extraterrestrial-looking sites.”
About Thanos
Since the Eternals and Celestials are ancient and strong — the Celestials are among the universe’s oldest beings — they cross paths with just about anyone. When the Kree discovered the Eternals, they attempted to replicate the Celestial experiment on Earth, resulting in the development of Inhumans. Thanos is linked to the Eternals in Marvel’s 616 universe since the Eternals colonized Titan in the far past. Meanwhile, the Celestials have appeared in both Guardians films, but only in passing.
The first video was shown to a Brazil Comic Con Experience audience in December 2019, and the heroes were dressed up. Rodney Fuentebella, a Marvel Studios design artist, also shared some artwork featuring the giant Celestials, a third party.
Richard Madden will play Ikaris, Kumail Nanjiani will play Kingo, Lauren Ridloff will play Makkari, Brian Tyree Henry will play Phastos, Salma Hayek will play Ajak, Lia McHugh will play Sprite, Don Lee will play Gilgamesh, Angelina Jolie will play Thena, and Kit Harington will play Dane Whitman, a.k.a. the Black Knight. Henry’s Phastos will allegedly be married to a man and raising a child alongside him, making this Marvel’s first real attempt at featuring gay characters.
After losing its November 2020 slot to Black Widow, Disney rescheduled the film for November 5, 2021 during a September 2020 reorganization of its release calendar. The film was shown for the first time to the audience in a Phase 4 trailer released a few days ago.
