What you need to know before watching Marvel's Eternals (2023)

The word "ambitious' is often used when discussingnoneThe next Marvel Studios project, but perhaps there is no better time to capitalize on it than to talk about it.Eternal🇧🇷 The upcoming film features the largest cast of new heroes of any MCU film yet: the world's original superheroes: a group of 7,000-year-old aliens who look likeExactlylike beautiful people, gathered before another doomsday scenario for the poor earthlings who can't seem to catch a break.

EternalIt is the third film in Phase 4 of the MCU after the conclusion of the Infinity Saga, and is the second longest film in the MCU at two hours and 40 minutes.Avengers Endgame🇧🇷 Also featured by the MCU's first Oscar-winning director in Chloé Zhao (nomad country), which was commissioned to tell a story starring a cast of very famous actors, introduces an ancient race of superheroes and predatory shapeshifters known as the Deviants, and offers a fuller explanation of the divine beings called Celestials, who first appeared in which it appearedGuardians of the Galaxy🇧🇷 the scope ofEternaltranscends even the most ambitious Avengers crossovers - spanning thousands of years and telling the origin story of thecompleteMCU. „Eternalexplores the creation of the Marvel Universe itself," said Kevin Feige, president of Marvel Studios, in aFeaturette for the film.

Eternalis set to open in theaters on Friday and is already facing an uphill battle at the box office, at least as much as any Marvel blockbuster, due to the ongoing pandemic andMixed reviewsby critics, many of whom praised the film for its diverse cast but found problems with the lesser-known cast of characters and the sheer scale of the plot. Despite all this, an unknown title character hasn't stopped.Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Ringsto break themAll-time box office record for Labor Day weekendEarlier this year, it didn't even stop the audience from falling for him.Guardians of the Galaxysoy 2014.EternalHowever, it could still succeed thanks to the merits of its star-studded cast and visionary director, and its role as a linchpin in Hollywood's most lucrative blockbuster machine.

After the MCU introduced talking trees and stone people in phase 4 and delved into a multiverse of parallel worlds and timelines,Eternalreaches even stranger new heights in the realm of science fiction. To help you prepare for the next movie and get acquainted with the many new heroes, here's all you need to know.Eternal.

Meet the Eternals

Marvel-Studios

The ancient immortal aliens known as the Eternals arrived on Earth 7,000 years before the planet Olympias and were sent there to protect humans from the threat of Deviants (Deviants like to eat people). It's no coincidence that the Eternals' homeworld is named after the ancient Greek location, as most of these heroes are inspired by it, or serve as such in the context of the story.the inspiration for– Gods and characters found in Greek mythology and other cultures. Appropriate,Eternalhe himself travels through the entire course of human history, telling his narrative across two timelines: one reaching back to ancient civilizations of the past and one focusing on the impending apocalypse of the present.

With so many new faces set to make their debut, here's a quick rundown of the 10 Eternals starring in the film, plus one human unfortunate enough to be associated with them:

• Sersi(Gemma Chan): Sersi has the power to mindlessly manipulate matter and, perhaps more than any other Eternal, has a deep love and respect for humanity. In the current timeline of the film, Sersi works at the Natural History Museum in London and becomes romantically engaged to Dane Whitman, a human.
• Ikaris(Richard Madden): Ikaris is one of the most powerful members of the Eternals and can fly and shoot lightning from his eyes. He also has a recurring relationship with Sersi. As the son of Phaistos points out inone of the teasers of the movie, the guy is pretty much the Superman of the MCU.
• Invite(Salma Hayek): Ajak is the leader of the Eternals, as well as the matriarch of this dysfunctional family of ancient aliens. She has the power to heal, as well as the unique ability to speak directly to the Celestials. "She is the bridge between the Eternals and the Celestials, and bridging two sides is never easy," Hayek said of her character in one.Interview withweekly entertainment.
• then one(Angelina Jolie): Thena is the goddess of war, one of the elite fighters of the group, with the ability to manifest various weapons. (After all the blockbusters Jolie has starred in over the years, how could this possibly be her first superhero movie?)
• Fast(Brian Tyree Henry): Phastos is the inventor of the Eternals, a thinker who can assemble anything with any kind of technology - he's OG Tony Stark thousands of years before Iron Man came along. He's also the first openly gay superhero in the MCU.
• on the border(Kumail Nanjiani): Kingo is a warrior who can manipulate energy with his hands, but he is also a Bollywood star in the film's current timeline. Nanjiani even has an elaborate Bollywood number in the movie The Actorspent several months training for.
• stunned(Barry Keoghan): Druig has the ability to manipulate other people's minds with his mind. The comic book version of the character tends to use this power for dishonest effect and he is a longtime rival of Ikaris.
• Makkari(Lauren Ridloff): Makkari has super speed, similar to DC's Flash or Marvel's Quicksilver, and is the first deaf superhero in the MCU. In the comics, Makkari was originally a male character and he, not Ikaris, had a recurring relationship with Sersi.
• Gilgamesh(Don Lee): Like your character inTrain to Busan, Lee (whose Korean name is Ma Dong-seok) only uses his fists to fight his enemies like the ancient fighter Gilgamesh. He is the strongest warrior in the group and Lee was able to integrate his own.Experience as a boxer for a long time.Gilgamesh's fighting style.
• Botavara(Lia McHugh) - Sprite uses illusions to confuse her enemies and allies, much like the mischievous god Loki. She is unique in that she is the only Eternal who looks like a child, despite being thousands of years old like her peers.
• Dane Whitman(Kit Harrington): Whitman works alongside Sersi at the Natural History Museum in what is now London. And while Dane will play a minor roleEternalIn the comics, a man of the same name was an Avenger known as the Black Knight, wielder of a powerful and cursed sword known as the Ebony Blade. (If he's been following, he'll find that yes,Eternalreunites Harrington and Madden, Stark's older brothersZu game of thrones, and throws her into a love triangle centered around a woman named Sersi, no less.)

de ZhaoEternalit focuses on almost all of the most prominent characters from the comics, with the notable omission of Zuras, Thena's father and the original leader of the Eternals. The decision to write Zuras was likely due to the character's similarities to Thor's father Odin, and it's a choice that makes sense for the film given Ajak's intriguing role as the Celestials' sole communicator. Like Zuras, Marvel Studios could have imagined many other Eternals, but the MCU version of the team was designed to feature five fighters and five thinkers. "The idea came from the structure of human society at the time," Zhao said.said Fandango recently🇧🇷 "There were fighters, generals, warriors and gladiators, but also philosophers, inventors, priests and healers. ... Half of the team will protect people from deviants and guard the gate so they can thrive in a safe environment. The the other half will push them to keep going and grow strong enough to one day protect themselves.”

in the den Comics

While the Eternals may be new to many Marvel fans, Ikaris and his race of godlike heroes first appeared in 1976 as the creation of Jack Kirby. However, the concepts behind these ancient alien protectors of earth and the celestial titans who spawned them took root. in his work at Marvel's longtime rival, DC Comics.

In the early 1970s, Kirby left Marvel Comics for DC to create the iconic Fourth World and New Gods saga, a series of cosmic stories in which he invented some of the company's greatest villains, including Darkseid. A few years after the end of Kirby's Fourth World in 1973, he returned to Marvel, taking many of the themes and concepts he had explored at DC and delving into existential questions surrounding the creation of Earth and the universe itself.the eternals🇧🇷 The series was unlike anything Marvel released at the time, but from the very beginning, the Eternals and those giant robot-like gods known as the Celestials were underdogs alongside the other heroes of the Marvel Universe.

Comics Marvel

Based on the Kirby original.EternalThe run ended in 1978, the Eternals made occasional appearances in miniseries, and the likes of Sersi and Gilgamesh joined the Avengers for a time. It wasn't until 2006 that Kirby's Eternals received its first major comic book sequel, when the series was relaunched by two legendary comic book artists, writer Neil Gaiman and artist John Romita Jr. Gaiman and Romita helped reintegrate the Eternals into Marvel. modern. Universe, Reintroducing the Heroes to thecivil warSeries in perhaps the most popularEternalseries to date. The story begins when Ikaris is the only Eternal who remembers the history of his race, and awakens members of his species like Makkari and Sersi to help him face a doomsday threat. (There is always a threat of the end of the world.)

More recentlyaEternalI have another new beginningEarlier this year, similar toShang-Chi got a much-needed comic rebootahead of the release of his MCU movie. Written by Kieron Gillen and illustrated by Esad Ribic, the rookieEternalThe series reintroduces the race of immortal heroes and resurrects them after they all die as one.avengerPlot. (This is all complicated, even by comic book logistics standards.) To grab readers' attention, Gillen and Ribic's series focuses on the imminent threat from Marvel's most famous Eternal: Thanos. The big purple villain is an alien from the planet Titan with no mention of an Eternal lineage in the MCU's Infinity saga, but in the comics, Thanos is also an Eternal with a rare Deviant gene. This ongoing comic series has no direct connections or influences to the next MCU movie, but it's still fun to reconnect with the Eternals in a story starring Marvel's greatest villain.

Zhao and his creative team seem to be inspired by the cosmic proportions of Kirby and Gaiman's stories, capturing the spirit and scope of the colossal Celestials and showing what life would have been like for these timeless and timeless beings who have lived since Aeons are. on earth as human civilization builds, destroys and rebuilds before them. The whole point of the film, however, particularly its deeply galaxy-focused approach to creation myths, stems largely from the early work Kirby did on the title. "We're probably going to borrow from that," says producer Nate Moore.recently told ComicBook.comin Gaiman's acclaimed series. "But the truth is that we're actually more inspired by the Kirby stuff, so we're going back to the old stuff, both mythologically and in the way the movie is presented."

Expansion of the UCM

After the release ofShang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings,Eternalit will be the current second film in phase 4 of the MCU's development. In the meantimeShang-Chidid little about how the Infinity saga impacted our world of heroes and aliens alike,Eternalit will deal more directly with the consequences of the problem. "Five years ago, Thanos wiped out half the population of the universe," Ajak tells Ikaris in thelatest movie trailer🇧🇷 "But the people of this planet brought them all back with a snap of their fingers. The sudden return of the population provided the necessary energy to start the emergency."

DuringEternalis a standalone film that introduces a new cast of defenders of Earth in the MCU, and also follows the trend of Phase 4 TV shows looking with one eye to the past and the other to the future. The model has mostly worked so far, especially with the Emmy-winning actress.Wanda VisionmiLoki, and it seems that it will continuenext hawk archer series, who stumbles upon Clint Barton's vigilante past when Ronin catches up with him while taking a protégé under his wing. However, Marvel has yet to try that approach on the movie side of things this summer.black widowwas positioned as an untold story of the past whileShang-Chifocused on telling the origin story of a new hero.Eternalwill prove to be a case study for Marvel Studios as it continues to move beyond the era of movies that ended withthe end of the gameand to a lesser extentSpider-Man: Far From Home🇧🇷 Gone are the picturesque and earthly stories of Captain America; Instead, there are sweeping tales featuring celestial beings and a seemingly endless stream of timelines. Having completed a cohesive narrative that spanned 20 films and focused on the disappearance and reappearance of half of life in the universe, Marvel now looks to up the ante by exploring the origins of life.