Eternals are here and director Chloé Zhang brings an epic showdown to the screens as the latest team of Marvel heroes face down one giant galactic threat. Marvel Studios has dropped the first full trailer for the upcoming cosmic epic, Eternals, teasing Zhao’s superhero saga.
Marvel’s Eternals introduces a new team of immortal beings to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It was first created by legendary comic book artist Jack Kirby in 1976. Though they are Marvel Comics lesser known characters, they have a long history. The Eternals new trailer serves as sort of an informative introduction of who these cosmic beings are and what they have been up to for the last 7,000 years.
Eternals Were Created By God-like Celestials
The Eternals are aliens created by powerful, godlike Celestials. They were sent to Earth to protect humans from the Deviants — monster-like creatures. All the Eternals have super strength and each have their own unique powers and have spent the last few millennia standing by and observing the human race.
The Eternals trailer answers one question that’s been on fans’ minds since the teaser trailer came out: If the Eternals are so powerful and have been on Earth for 7,000 years, why didn’t they join the fight against Thanos? A human character — Dane Whitman played by Game of Thrones’ Kit Harington — asked that very question.
“We were instructed not to interfere in any human conflicts unless Deviants were involved,” Sersi says.
Salma Hayek’s character Ajak, the leader, explains that Thanos’ action has had a ripple effect. Now, the Eternals have to come out of hiding to protect humanity from the Deviants once again.
Oscar-winner director Chloé Zhao previously told Entertainment Weekly that part of what drew her to the film was the many possibilities for storytelling after Avengers: Endgame. “I was very fortunate,” she says. “I feel like I entered the MCU at a time when a wonderful story had just concluded, so it’s a bit like we’re on the frontier. There’s a lot of desire to explore.”
The Eternals full trailer reveals the vast scale and scope of the upcoming MCU film, from ancient civilizations to modern-day London. It also shows beautiful imagery of space. It’s an epic movie spanning thousands of years. Zhang also puts a bit of elements similar to her work from The Rider or the Oscar-winning film Nomadland.
Zhao mentioned that while developing the look and feel of Eternals, she used a lot of Jack Kirby’s original Eternals comics. As we saw in the trailer, there was a shot of the massive red Celestial, which looks like it was ripped straight from Kirby’s comics pages.
“None of this is possible without Jack Kirby’s brilliant creation,” Zhao tells Entertainment Weekly. “That was a huge part of it for us. That goes for everything, from the design of the spaceship to the tiniest symbol on the costumes, to what their powers look like. And each of those things has to serve the story. For me, it’s always like, what does this say about them as a group? Or their relationship with the Celestials and the Deviants and each other?”
Zhao and the cast hope fans connect with the film’s down-to-earth themes. “Coming out of these years that we’ve had, it’s got a nice message at its center about humanity,” Jolie tells EW. “I haven’t seen the final film, but I will say that humanity and kindness is at its core. I’m hoping audiences feel that.”
Eternals debuts in theaters November 5th though Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige mentioned there might be a chance it also releases on Disney+. Watch the Eternals full trailer below.
