Sometimes sitting through the credits of a movie to see all the post-credits scenes can feel like an eternity but Marvel fans, get ready to keep your butts in your seats when Eternals opens. Director Chloé Zhao confirms that the next Marvel flick does indeed have two post-credits scenes. (Well, technically I guess that’s one mid-credits scene and one post-credits, but you know what I meant.) This is nothing new. Nearly every Marvel movie delivers the same.
As she said in a recent interview:
“Don’t just stay for the first one — also stay for the second one, too. They are equally as important in weight, and both have big surprises for you.”
Don’t they all?
Many MCU fans are unsure of how to take Eternals since it is based on a property that isn’t very well-known even amongst comic book readers. But from the sound of things, Eternals will be VERY important to the storyline going forward. Or even backward. It seems that this picture will not only reveal unknown secrets of the past but will set things up that will play out for years to come.
As Zhao further added:
“I think a big part of it is that audiences will be discovering the origin of the MCU through the mythology of the Celestials. I think by the end of the film, we will have a new understanding of planet Earth’s relationship with the cosmos, and also with her own inhabitants. But in that sense, it would have a huge effect on the future of the MCU.”
One of the big questions asked by fans and teased by the trailers is, “If the Eternals are that powerful and have been here all along, then why didn’t they pop up to fight Thanos?”
While Marvel talent is usually tight-lipped about upcoming projects, Zhao was surprisingly candid when asked to explain this:
“We like to call them Earth’s original superheroes. So, they were instructed to stand on the sideline once the Deviants were gone to allow humans to develop and progress in the way that we were meant to…and that ultimately led us to someone like Tony [Stark]. So, they’ve always existed in the shadows…you just never know where they might show up again.”
The trailer clearly states that the Eternals were only to come out of hiding if the threat against humanity involved the Deviants. (Also, people didn’t just “show up” to fight Thanos. They were teleported there by Doctor Strange and the other sorcerers including Wong. They were recruited and Strange and the others only went after people they knew or at least knew about. The Eternals have been in hiding so the sorcerers simply didn’t know they existed. That’s just my theory. But that also may explain why the X-Men weren’t there.)
As a bonus, here are the just-released Eternals character posters, showcasing the cast:
Eternals, directed by Chloé Zhao, stars Gemma Chan as Sersi, Salma Hayek as Ajak, Brian Tyree Henry as Phastos, Angelina Jolie as Thena, Barry Keoghan as Druig, Don Lee as Gilgamesh, Richard Madden as Ikaris, Lia McHugh as Sprite, Kumail Nanjiani as Kingo, and Lauren Ridloff as Makkari. Kit Harington also appears as Dane Whitman, who does NOT become the Black Knight in this film. The picture opens on November 5, 2021.