What is eternals?
The Eternals are a group of ancient immortal beings who work on behalf of the Celestials, who are gigantic beings that are the architects of life itself. The Eternals have protected the Earth since the dawn of man. The Eternals are a race of super-powered human-like beings that have lived in secret, apart from humanity, since before the dawn of civilization. They are nigh-immortal; hence their name. They are all super-intelligent, all exhibit their own specialized superpowers as well as a host of shared powers, such as super strength and energy projection.
The Eternals Movie have been described as the next evolutionary step in the process that created human beings. This was kicked off by the Celestials, who decided to expedite the evolutionary process for a select few intelligent lifeforms on Earth to create the Eternals’ species. In this original comic, the Eternals were a type of near-immortal, humanlike being with diverse powers who were created by Celestials, extremely powerful, beyond ancient beings. The Celestials experimented on what would become humanity ages ago, seeding the ability for normal humans to develop mutations (à la the X-Men) or other superpowers and also creating an evil sort of being alongside the Eternals: The Deviants. It was the Eternals’ mission to defend humanity from the Deviants.
As the trailers and the very proper noun-heavy opening text for the film reveal, the Eternals have roughly the same origin in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as they do in the comics. They were created by Celestials to defend humanity from the Deviants and help the species grow and develop. The idea is that the Eternals inspired humans’ earliest conceptions of gods, from the Aztecs’ Quetzalcóatl to basically the entire Greek and Roman pantheon. The Eternals live on Olympia, and their name are all twists on classical mythology, so that Mercury becomes Makkari; Zeus becomes Zuras. Of course, according to the Eternals, it’s their names that are the real deal. The more familiar versions just a case of human mispronunciation.
And with that background, we can now finally talk about The Eternals — a race of god-like humans created ages sometime around the Stone Age by a race of cosmic gods — called Celestials — who came to earth millennia ago to perform their experiments on the cave people running around then. These Celestials created two evolutionary off-shoots of the nascent human race: one came to be known as The Eternals, and the other The Deviants, the villainous antagonists to The Eternals.
The titular Eternals are based on characters created by legendary comic book writer and artist Jack Kirby. In the late 1970s, Kirby wrote The Eternals – a comic book series based around immortal, super-powered beings who have secretly shared the Earth with humans for thousands of years. The Eternals believe they’re from the world of Olympia, but they’re actually synthetic beings created by the Celestials at the World-Forge and sent to wipe out the Deviants (meaning one creation was sent to stop another). Their memories are wiped after each Emergence, and they’re sent off to a new planet to do it all again.
The Eternals have names that resemble gods or other characters from various mythologies. Legends say they were the originals, and they were mistaken for gods or otherwise inspired mythic characters. Eternals is the third film in the MCU’s Phase 4, following the conclusion of the Infinity Saga, and clocking in at two hours and 40 minutes, it is the second-longest MCU movie behind only Avengers: Endgame. It’s also helmed by the MCU’s first Oscar-winning director in Chloé Zhao (Nomadland), who has been tasked with telling a story that stars a host of extremely famous actors, introduces an ancient race of superheroes and predatory shape-shifting aliens known as Deviants, and provides a greater explanation of the godlike beings called the Celestials that first appeared in Guardians of the Galaxy. The scope of Eternals expands beyond even the most ambitious Avengers crossovers: It spans thousands of years and tells the origin story of the entire MCU. “Eternals explores the very creation of the Marvel universe itself,” Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige says in a featurette for the film.
What are the key features of the movie?
Don’t forget to wait at the end…my sources tell me the movie has two end-credit scenes. This is a complicated one, so let’s take a look at the revelations earlier in the movie to make sense of it all. If you just want to know what happens in the ending, scroll straight down to the “Emergence averted” section.
Spoiler alert: The remainder of this article includes revelations about characters that appear in the post-credits scenes of “Eternals.” For those who have seen the film and are curious about who these characters are, read on. With so many new faces set to debut, here’s a brief rundown of all 10 Eternals featured in the film, plus one human who has the misfortune of getting involved with them:
TheEternals movie introduces a group of immortal aliens to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but what powers do they all have? Directed by Chloe Zhao, Eternals hit theaters in November 2021 and brought with it some of Marvel’s most obscure heroes into the MCU to date. Through Ikaris (Richard Madden), Thena (Angelina Jolie), Sersi (Gemma Chan), and many more, audiences glimpse the history of the Marvel universe like never before. Though the main narrative is set in the present day, portions of Eternals explores ancient time periods and civilizations, such as Babylon and Tenochtitlan, which show the eras spanning the Eternals’ 7,000 years after arriving on Earth.
Those films set the stage for the Eternals movie in Phase 4 of the MCU. At one point, Marvel’s Kevin Feige hinted that the movie was in development, with rumors indicating that Sersi will be its central character. In May 2018, Matthew and Ryan Firpo were hired to pen the screenplay, and in September of 2018 The Rider director Chloe Zhao was tapped to helm the film. In March, 2019, THR reported that Angelina Jolie was in talks to star in the film and that “one aspect to the story involves the love story between Ikaris, a man fueled by cosmic energy, and Sersi, who relishes moving amongst humans.”
The eternals movie takes place after Avengers: Endgame, when billions of vanished people returned after a five-year absence and the world is suddenly feeling pretty crowded. We’ll also have a separate article diving into the post-credits scenes, if you want to jump straight to those. The movie features 10 Eternals, including Ikaris, who can fly and shoot laser beams out of his eyes; Sersi (Gemma Chan), who can transmute matter into other forms; Sprite (Lia McHugh), an eternally adolescent girl who can create illusions; and Thena (Angelina Jolie), a skilled warrior who can conjure weapons out of energy. The leader of the Eternals is Ajak (Salma Hayek), the only one who can communicate with the Celestials. All these characters were introduced in Kirby’s initial run on The Eternals, albeit with some notable differences. Ajak, Sprite and their teammate Makkari (Lauren Ridloff), male characters in the comic, were changed to female for the film. The cast is also more diverse than their characters’ original depictions.
Considering how complicated the movie’s plot was, the resolution seems pretty straightforward — it mostly served to set up the Celestials as a major threat for Phase 4 of the MCU. A sequel will likely see the Eternals going to free their allies from Arishem on the World-Forge (this plotline may also develop in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3)
The cast of eternals movie?
With so many new faces set to debut, here’s a brief rundown of all 10 Eternals featured in the film, plus one human who has the misfortune of getting involved with them: Set to be directed by Chloé Zhao (The Rider) from a script penned by Matthew and Ryan Firpo, Eternals will introduce a new pantheon of powerful heroes and villains to the MCU and already has some high-profile actors attached, including Angelina Jolie and Kumail Nanjiani. Here’s everything we know about Eternals.
Along with Jolie, Madden, and Nanjiani, Eternals will star Train to Busan actor Don Lee as Gilgamesh, Oscar-nominated Frida star Salma Hayek as Ajak (the leader of the Eternals), The Walking Dead actress Lauren Ridloff as Makkari, Atlanta actor Brian Tyree Henry as Phastos, and Lia McHugh (The Lodge) as Sprite.
The MCU’s upcoming Eternals movie will have a pretty star-studded cast. The movie will revolve around Sersi and Ikaris, with some supporting characters around them. Angelina Jolie has been confirmed to play Sersi, while Game of Thrones star Richard Madden is currently in talks to play Ikaris. 15.From the beginning, Eternals set out to be a movie about “found family” and how audiences could hopefully see themselves reflected in one of these 10 new characters.
The exact plot of Eternals 2 is unknown. But from what we can surmise from the end of Eternals, it will likely revolve around Arishem’s kidnapping of Sersi, Kingo, and Phastos after they stopped the emergence from happening. It seems like if a rescue is part of the plan, it may involve the help of Harry Styles’ character Eros, who Thena, Makkari, and Druig encounter during the mid-credits scene.
Eternals is due in theaters Friday and already faces an uphill battle at the box office—at least, as much as any Marvel blockbuster can—due to the ongoing pandemic and mixed reviews from critics, many of whom have praised the movie for its diverse cast, but found issues with the lesser-known slate of characters and the plot’s massive scale. With all of that said, an unknown title character didn’t stop Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings from shattering the all-time Labor Day weekend box office record earlier this year, nor did it stop audiences from falling in love with Guardians of the Galaxy in 2014. Eternals may still succeed on the merits of its star-studded cast and its visionary director, as well as its role as a cog in Hollywood’s most lucrative blockbuster machine.
How he is supposed to fit with the other Eternals from this movie is anybody’s guess, although he is surely joining the team (and they could use it, considering that several of them didn’t survive until the end of this movie). Or maybe he’ll just join them on their intergalactic voyage. The scene honestly feels more like something out of one of the “Guardians of the Galaxy” movies than anything from “Eternals,” with its irreverent tone, colorful computer-generated sidekick and 70s A.M. rock soundtrack (the scene is scored to Foreigner’s 1977 single “Feels Like the First Time”). And it’s enough to wonder if Starfox will make an appearance in the upcoming “Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3” before he joins another “Eternals” outing.
The release dates for eternals movie?
Eternals Movie was originally slated to hit theaters in November of 2020, but like almost all of its blockbuster peers, was shifted due to the COVID pandemic to February 2021. A second release date shuffle landed Eternals on the release date of November 5, 2021, which it seems to be sticking to. Back in September, Disney confirmedEternals would exclusively be released in theaters, ruling out the day-and-date Disney+ Premiere Access route Black Widow took (resulting in quite the legal hullabaloo).
Like Black Widow before it, Eternals was planned for release in 2020 — November 6, 2020 to be exact — but experienced some of the sliding calendar woes both Black Widow and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Ringsfaced as the pandemic significantly altered theatrical exhibition. For the moment, Eternals is set for release on November 5, almost exactly a year after its original date.
Eternals had its world premiere at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles on October 18, 2021, and was screened at the Rome Film Festival on October 24. The film was released theatrically in many European countries on November 3, and in the United States and the United Kingdom on November 5 in RealD 3D and 4DX. In September 2021, Disney announced that the film would have an exclusive theatrical release for a minimum of 45 days.Eternals was previously set for release on November 6, 2020, before it was shifted to February 12, 2021, and then to the November 2021 date, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It is part of Phase Four of the MCU.
Eternals will also be available to stream in IMAX’s Expanded Aspect Ratio format, which Disney Plus started rolling out on other Marvel films, including Iron Man, Avengers: Endgame, and the recently released Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, in November. The January 12th date has been floating around the internet for a few weeks already, but today marks the official confirmation from Disney of the streaming release.
‘Eternals’: Release Date, Plot, Cast, Villains, and Everything We Know About the New Cosmic MCU Movie Marvel’s supersized superhero epic Eternals is officially going to be available to stream on Disney Plus on January 12th, Disney announced today, about two months after it was first released on November 3rd.
Eternals is the latest example of how much faster films are transitioning from a traditional theatrical release to a paid digital and disc release period to subscription streaming in just a matter of weeks, instead of the usual monthslong cycle. It also speaks to how important boosting Disney Plus subscription numbers is to Disney, as a long-term business strategy, one that could indicate that the swift pace of movies from theater to streaming will only continue to accelerate.
