Marvel Originally Had Much Larger Plans For The Eternals In The MCU
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Though it may not come as a surprise, it seems that Marvel Studios originally had much larger plans for "Eternals" as a franchise in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Released in 2021 as one of the first post-"Avengers: Endgame" films, "Eternals" paired a massive, star-studded cast with an ambitious story spanning thousands of years. It was also directed by Chloé Zhao, who was fresh off winning a Best Director Oscar for "Nomadland," with the movie itself going on to win Best Picture as well. The stars seemed to align. Then, it all fell apart.
On a recent episode of the "Working it Out" podcast with Mike Birbiglia, Kumail Nanjiani ("Silicon Valley"), who played Kingo in "Eternals," reflected on his experience in the MCU, which turned out to be rather brief. For the comedian-turned-actor, it originally felt like a hurry up and wait situation that would change his career. Here's what he had to say about it:
"I talked about how I was in this big movie. It came out right after Covid, so I had a year and a half at home to just be like, 'Oh, when this thing comes out!' But then it came out and it got really bad reviews and it didn't do that well. It shattered me too much. That's when I was like, 'Oh I need to go to therapy to figure this out.'"
Nanjiani didn't say it explicitly at first, but he went on to confirm that he was indeed talking about "Eternals." The actor had initially signed his life away for a decade, having agreed to a deal that included six movies and even a video game for Marvel. But after "Eternals" barely made $400 million at the box office against very mixed reviews, that all disappeared. As Nanjiani explained:
"I was like, 'Oh, this is going to be my job for the next 10 years.' I signed on for six movies. I signed on for a video game. I signed on for a theme park ride. They make you sign up for all this stuff. And you're like, 'This is the next 10 years of my life, so I'll be doing Marvel movies every year and, in between, I'll do my own little things, whatever I want to do.' And then none of that happened."
Marvel Studios thought the Eternals would be the next big thing
"Eternals" centers on a group of ancient aliens who have secretly been living on Earth for thousands of years. After being split up for centuries, a tragedy forces them to band together once again to battle an ancient threat known as the Deviants. It's based on "The Eternals" by comic book legend Jack Kirby, which was originally published by Marvel Comics in 1976.
Rather than focus on one character, Zhao's film has to introduce filmgoers to nearly a dozen new heroes, ranging from Sersi (Gemma Chan) to Thena (Angelina Jolie), in addition to Nanjiani's Kingo. It was wildly ambitious, even by Marvel standards, but it just didn't come together in a way that sat well with many critics and audiences at the time. It certainly didn't help that 2021 was a wildly uneven year at the box office, with theaters still recovering from the 2020 COVID-19 lockdowns. All the same, the MCU was held to an almost impossibly high standard at that time, so when this movie failed to deliver, the larger plans for these characters evaporated.
It's crystal clear that Marvel Studios thought these characters would be around much longer. The "Eternals" credits scenes set up Starfox (Harry Styles) and the Black Knight (Kit Harington), neither of whom have been brought up in the MCU since. It's equally unlikely they will be revisited any time soon (if at all), while a sequel certainly isn't happening, let alone a video game.
What's interesting, looking back, is that "Thunderbolts*" made just $382 million worldwide this year, yet the characters from that film are going to be in "Avengers: Doomsday." Granted, the movie was met with far better reviews than "Eternals," but it does go to show that the standards for success in the superhero genre have changed greatly in the last four years. As for Nanjiani, he said the whole experience taught him not to tie his feelings about himself as a person to his work. As he put it:
"For me, what really hit me was just realizing that too much of my self-esteem is tied up in other people's reaction to my work. Also, other people have way bigger problems than this!"