After a quick tease from Marvel’s Celebrate The Movies promotion earlier in May, Marvel Studios finally released the first full-length trailer for Eternals as well as a new poster for the movie. In addition to being the latest entry in the MCU, Eternals is the first Marvel Studios film from award-winning director Chloé Zhao who recently won Oscars for Best Picture and Best Director for Nomadland. Based off the trailer, Marvel’s Eternals takes place after Avengers: Endgame, but deals with a superhero team far more ancient than any member of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.
Eternals Director Chloé Zhang Talks About The Support She Received From Marvel Studios
Though the Eternals trailer doesn’t giveaway much of the plot, Marvel’s next epic film revolves around a tragic event that draws out the Eternals and their generation-spanning conflict against the Deviants will come to earth. Chloé Zhao also wrote the screenplay and in a previous interview, she revealed how supportive Marvel Studios has been with her vision.
“I think that Marvel has been so incredible, that Kevin and Nate and the whole team, they knew from the moment I pitched the film, I really wanted to [have] the scope and scale, and, at the same time, the intimacy,” she told Margaret Gardiner on YouTube. “They knew I wanted both, and they have been so incredible holding my hand through the entire process of allowing me to go as far as possible and as small as possible, and how that fit into the whole MCU. It’s been a pretty incredible process. You have to wait and see.”
Zhao also spoke to director Barry Jenkins for Variety. She revealed how eager she was to work with Marvel Studios. “I have been a fan of the MCU for the last decade. So, I put the word out there I wanted to make a Marvel movie, and the right project came to me,” Zhao said. “I just wanted to work with that team. Again, back to world-building. It is my favorite thing. That’s why I love Star Wars. There is a world that is so rich. I wanted to enter it and see what I can do. It’s the same as what you’re saying. Can I put a spin on it while still being true to the essence of it? That’s exciting to me. It’s not that different than me going to the world of rodeo cowboys and saying, ‘My spin on that is going to be this,’ and it’s a collaboration. The chemistry of that, when it’s right, it could be very exciting.”
The Eternals cast includes Richard Madden (Game of Thrones) as Ikaris, Angelina Jolie as Thena, Kumail Nanjiani as Kongo, Gemma Chan (Crazy Rich Asians) as Sersi, Lauren Ridloff as Makkari, Brian Tyree Henry (Atlanta) as Phastos, Salma Hayek as Ajak, Lia McHugh as Sprite, Don Lee as Gilgamesh, and Barry Keoghan as Druig. Game of Thrones’ Kit Harington also stars in Marvel’s Eternals as Dane Whitman a.k.a. the Marvel Comics hero Black Knight. Harington and Madden played half brothers in the Game of Thrones series.
Jacky Kirby, who was responsible for creating many popular Marvel characters, created the Eternals when he returned to Marvel in the 1970s. Eternal opens in theaters November 5th, 2021. Check out the Eternals trailer below.
