“Eternals” is the 26th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It is directed by Academy Award Winner, Chloe Zhao.
So let’s find out some trivia and facts about the new MCU flick.
- Eternals is a 2021 American superhero film
- It is based on the Marvel Comics race of the same name
- Produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
- It is the 26th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU)
- The film was directed by Chloé Zhao
- Zhao wrote the screenplay with Patrick Burleigh, Ryan Firpo, and Kaz Firpo
- It stars an ensemble cast including Gemma Chan, Richard Madden, Kumail Nanjiani, Lia McHugh, Brian Tyree Henry, Lauren Ridloff, Barry Keoghan, Don Lee, Harish Patel, Kit Harington, Salma Hayek, and Angelina Jolie
- In the film, the Eternals, an immortal alien race, emerge from hiding after thousands of years to protect Earth from their evil counterparts, the Deviants
- In April 2018, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige announced that a film based on the Eternals had begun development, with Ryan and Kaz Firpo hired to write the script in May
- Zhao was set to direct the film by late September
- She was given significant creative freedom with the film
- This resulted in filming on location more than previous MCU films
- Zhao re-wrote the screenplay
- Burleigh was later reported to have also contributed to
- Principal photography took place from July 2019 to February 2020, at Pinewood Studios as well as on location in London and Oxford, England, and in the Canary Islands
- Eternals premiered in Los Angeles on October 18, 2021
- The film was released theatrically in the United States on November 5
- It is part of Phase Four of the MCU
- The film received mixed reviews from critics
- Critics praised the visuals and themes
- They criticized its exposition, pacing, runtime, and lack of character development
- Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige said in April 2018 that the studio was actively developing a film based on the Marvel Comics series Eternals, created by Jack Kirby, to release as part of their Phase Four slate of films
- Marvel Studios had met with multiple screenwriters, and was believed to be focusing on the character Sersi in the film
- Marvel set Ryan and Kaz Firpo to write the script a month later
- With their outline including a love story between the characters Sersi and Ikaris
- In June, Feige said Marvel was interested in exploring the “ancient aliens kind of sci-fi trope” by having the Eternals be the inspiration for myths and legends throughout the history of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU)
- During late August, Marvel’s director search for Eternals narrowed to a shortlist that included Chloé Zhao, Nicole Kassell, Travis Knight, and the pair of Cristina Gallego and Ciro Guerra
- Zhao had also been in the running to direct Marvel’s Black Widow
- Zhao approached Marvel Studios about making the film as she had been a fan of the MCU
- She wanted to work with the studio to bring her own take and world-building to the franchise
- Zhao impressed them with a presentation that Feige described as fascinating, with “reams of visuals”
- Zhao worked with producer Nate Moore to develop her pitch
- The presentation left Marvel concerned that she might take on a different big-studio project instead of Eternals, forcing them to move quickly to secure her, and Zhao was hired as director in September
- Zhao hoped to push the scope of the film further than Marvel’s Avengers: Endgame (2019), but also wanted it to have intimacy
- Zhao described the film as a melting pot of influences, from Kirby’s original work, previous MCU projects, Zhao’s fandom of the MCU, and her love of science fiction and fantasy films and manga
- Speaking specifically to her love of manga, she hoped those influences would create a “marriage of East and West”
- Zhao cited the TV series Ancient Aliens, the Final Fantasy video game series, the concepts from Yuval Noah Harari’s book Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, and the films of Terrence Malick as her inspirations for the film
- Marvel considered Eternals to be a perfect transition into its next phase of films along with projects such as Captain Marvel (2019)
- Allowing the studio to cast a diverse group of actors to portray the various Eternals
- Moore’s initial planning documents for the project including the swapping of genders, sexualities, and ethnicities of some characters from the comic books, with Zhao further advocating for this approach
- In February 2019, Feige reiterated that Marvel was interested in the Eternals due to Kirby’s epic, century-spanning story, with the film version spanning 7,000 years and exploring humanity’s place in the cosmos
- Zhao noted that the Eternals “have lived among us for so long, [they have] the same struggles like identity, purpose, faith, personal freedom versus greater good — all the duality and flaws that make us human”
- When trying to develop a story that spanned so many years, Marvel realized that the characters would likely be a family unit, with friendship that would “turn into frenemies, and then turn into enemies, and then come back to friendship”
- Zhao also looked to the Earth as an eleventh character in the film, chronicling its journey alongside the Eternal characters
- Marvel also wanted to create more ensemble films that were not crossover films, like Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
- While introducing relatively unknown characters to audiences as they did with that film’s title characters and the Avengers
- Angelina Jolie joined the cast in March 2019, reportedly as Sersi
- Kumail Nanjiani and Don Lee cast in undisclosed roles the next month
- At that time, the film was expected to feature Marvel Studios’ first gay superhero
- In May, Richard Madden entered negotiations for the role of Ikaris
- Salma Hayek had entered early negotiations for an undisclosed role the following month
- In July, Variety reported that the cast included Jolie, Madden, and Millie Bobby Brown
- But Brown denied that she had been cast
- At the 2019 San Diego Comic-Con, Feige officially announced The Eternals with a release date of November 6, 2020
- He officially announced the casting of Jolie as Thena, Nanjiani as Kingo, Lee as Gilgamesh, Madden as Ikaris, and Hayek as Ajak, along with Lauren Ridloff as Makkari, Brian Tyree Henry as Phastos, and Lia McHugh as Sprite
- Feige added that one of these actors was portraying an LGBTQ character
- By the film’s official announcement in July 2019, principal photography had begun at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire, England
- Ben Davis served as director of photography, after doing so on several previous MCU films
- Zhao said Marvel Studios allowed her creative freedom to shoot the film on location, “exactly the way [she] wanted to shoot” it
- She was able to use a similar style to her previous films, including 360° shots and working with the same camera and rigs as was used for her film Nomadland (2020), which Zhao was set to complete back-to-back with The Eternals
- Zhao felt that she “got lucky in that Marvel wants to take risks and do something different”
- Zhao cited The Revenant (2015) as a primary influence when composing the film’s action sequences
- Gemma Chan and Barry Keoghan were in talks to join the cast in August 2019
- By early November, filming took place in the Canary Islands
- The filming cast and crew, including Jolie and Madden, had to be evacuated from a shooting location on the island of Fuerteventura when an explosive device was found there
- The device was thought to be a remnant armament from a Nazi base
- Later that month, Zain Al Rafeea joined the cast
- In early January 2020, filming took place outside the Oxford University Museum of Natural History in Oxford, England, as well as Hampstead Heath and in Camden in London, under the working title Sack Lunch
- Chan said the filming process felt very different from what she experienced on Captain Marvel, explaining that Eternals shot more on location and utilized natural light while Captain Marvel had more studio work and bluescreen
- Filming wrapped on February 4, 2020
- In March 2020, Scanline VFX, one of the companies working on the film’s visual effects, confirmed that they would be working remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic
- In early April, Disney shifted much of their Phase Four slate of films due to the pandemic, moving The Eternals’ release date to February 12, 2021
- In August, the film’s title was officially shortened from The Eternals to Eternals
- The next month, the release date was pushed back to November 5, 2021
- Reshoots had taken place by mid-November 2020
- Ramin Djawadi composed the score for the film, after previously doing so for Marvel’s Iron Man (2008)
- Two songs from the film’s soundtrack, “Across the Oceans of Time” and “Eternals Theme”, were released as singles on October 22, 2021
- While the full album was released on November 3
- Advanced ticket sales for Eternals were estimated to be $2.6 million in its first 24 hours, surpassing those for Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings ($1.4 million) and Black Widow ($2 million) during the same time frame
- While AMC Theatres had the largest first day sales of 2021 for the film
- In November, Fandango reported that pre-sales for Eternals were second-largest of 2021, behind Black Widow
- In October, Boxoffice Pro initially projected that the film would earn $82–102 million within its opening weekend
- And around $210–280 million in total domestic box office
- At the end of the month, BoxofficePro modified their projections to $67–92 million for the film’s opening weekend
- And around $165–215 million in total domestic box office, due to mixed early critical reception
- According to Deadline Hollywood, Eternals is currently expected to earn $75 million within its domestic opening weekend
- And around $150 million globally
- The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported an approval rating of 48%
- With an average rating of 5.6/10
- Based on 287 reviews
- The website’s critical consensus reads, “An ambitious superhero epic that soars as often as it strains, Eternals takes the MCU in intriguing—and occasionally confounding—new directions”
- On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 53 out of 100
- Based on 57 critics
- Indicating “mixed or average reviews”
- It is the lowest-rated MCU film on both websites
- “Eternals” is the first installment to be classified as “rotten” on Rotten Tomatoes
- Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of “B” on an A+ to F scale
- This is tthe lowest grade for an MCU film
- While PostTrak reported 75% of audience members gave it a positive score
- With 57% saying they would definitely recommend it
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