ETERNALS 2 Reportedly Set To Be More Cosmic; Director Chloé Zhao Unlikely To Return

ETERNALS 2 Reportedly Set To Be More Cosmic; Director Chloé Zhao Unlikely To Return ETERNALS 2 Reportedly Set To Be More Cosmic; Director Chloé Zhao Unlikely To Return

With it beginning to look like Eternals 2 may eventually happen, some minor new details about the sequel have been revealed...though it doesn't sound like Chloé Zhao will be helming the action next time!

By JoshWilding - Dec 27, 2022 06:12 AM EST
Filed Under: Eternals

Eternals is often singled out for being Marvel Studios' first "Rotten" movie, but taking that aside, there were still a lot of great ideas in there worth following up on in a sequel. 

For starters, the movie ended with two huge cliffhangers. Half the team found themselves abducted from Earth by the Celestial Arishem, while the rest met Eros and Pip the Troll, with the former promising the heroes he could help them find their missing friends. 

Following the news that Don Lee is being lined up for Eternals 2, reliable insider @MyTimeToShineH is claiming that fans should expect "Judgement Day" in a more cosmic sequel. Arishem took the Eternals in order to decide whether Earth deserved to survive at the cost of the emerging Tiamut, so the stakes will clearly be extremely high in this follow-up.

Talking of the now-marble Celestial - believed to be the source of Adamantium in the MCU - the scooper clarifies that no one in the MCU is referring to the frozen alien as "Tiamut Island" or "Genosha" at this point in time. As you may recall, the location looks set to be a big part of both Captain America: New World Order and Thunderbolts.

Going back to Eternals 2, though, and while there's no news on a possible release date, it sounds like filmmaker Chloé Zhao won't be back at the helm. 

This isn't surprising in many ways as it did feel a little like she may have been a poor fit for the unique Marvel Studios-style of storytelling. The filmmaker delivered some incredible visuals and cast the roles perfectly, but there were definitely ideas in there (such as the portrayal of the Deviants) that didn't quite work. 

Are you excited about this rumoured Eternals sequel?
 

ETERNALS Star Kit Harington Says He's No Longer Interested In Heroic Roles After GAME OF THRONES
Related:

ETERNALS Star Kit Harington Says He's No Longer "Interested In Heroic Roles" After GAME OF THRONES

ETERNALS Star Kit Harington Says Nothing [Is] In The Works For Dane Whitman/Black Knight In The MCU
Recommended For You:

ETERNALS Star Kit Harington Says "Nothing [Is] In The Works" For Dane Whitman/Black Knight In The MCU

DISCLAIMER: ComicBookMovie.com is protected under the DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act) and... [MORE]

ComicBookMovie.com, and/or the user who contributed this post, may earn commissions or revenue through clicks or purchases made through any third-party links contained within the content above.

1 2
DoubleD
DoubleD - 12/27/2022, 6:38 AM
Eternals two great to hear :)

Taonrey
Taonrey - 12/27/2022, 6:39 AM
This and Hawkeye needed to be switched, Hawkeye should have been a movie and this should have been a Disney+ series. I like Hawkeye but I think you could have accomplished the same thing in a 2hr movie.
Doomsday8888
Doomsday8888 - 12/27/2022, 6:40 AM
Judgement Day? As in...the recent Marvel Comics event that happened yesterday and featured The Eternals, The Avengers and yours truly, the X-Men?

Probably not.
mastakilla39
mastakilla39 - 12/27/2022, 10:23 AM
@Doomsday8888 - Nah I think they are referencing Jack Kirby and Neil Gaiman's Judgment run where the celestials return to judge Earth and its inhabitants worthiness. If earth is unworthy they destroy it and if they are then they keep studying its progress. I doubt they are referencing the new comics.
Doomsday8888
Doomsday8888 - 12/27/2022, 10:58 AM
@mastakilla39
Soooo you mean like the new comic. :P
bobevanz
bobevanz - 12/27/2022, 6:40 AM
The director got her fill, leave it to the actual hired hands they like to hire lol
Urubrodi
Urubrodi - 12/27/2022, 7:35 AM
@bobevanz - Well if the hired hand does a better job, which won't be hard, go for it.
ObserverIO
ObserverIO - 12/27/2022, 6:46 AM
I loved The Eternals, flawed as it was.
But I really don't care about seeing a a sequel.

Just put the Judgment Day storyline in Fantastic Four. We know it's a Silver Surfery/Galactus type thing, so it would seem apt for this story and that story to be related.
EgoEgor
EgoEgor - 12/27/2022, 6:51 AM
I will give it this. Eternals, other than the CGI and costume design, had great cinematography. CGI and costume looked as generic as the rest of the MCU, but Zhao use of natural light and ACTUAL sets was beautiful.

MCU has a massive cinematography problem, especially recently. Everything looks the same, feels generic and unlived in. This felt different and that's in big part to Zhao herself so I'm kind of disappointed she won't return from that perspective.
ObserverIO
ObserverIO - 12/27/2022, 6:52 AM
@EgoEgor - That's what I liked about it too. Eternals without Zhao? meh.
TheShellyMan
TheShellyMan - 12/27/2022, 11:39 AM
@EgoEgor - I loved the cinematography of Wakanda Forever.
FireandBlood
FireandBlood - 12/27/2022, 6:58 AM
I rewatched this earlier and I’ve got to say, it gets a lot of unnecessary shtick. It’s not an incredible movie, but it’s good, and definitely unique in terms of the MCU catalogue. There’s a lot to build of for a sequel, so we’ll see. I definitely want to revisit these characters and their world again.
Mugens
Mugens - 12/27/2022, 7:11 AM
@PlusUltra - Agree 100%...
MochaKing
MochaKing - 12/27/2022, 9:09 AM
@PlusUltra - It was eons better than Thor L&T, Apart from few action sequences many of the jokes were cringe. Trust me, I liked Ragnarök but L&T was insult to all Thor &Taika fans... Regarding Eternals (Spoiler Warning), they shouldn't have shoe horned the Kro in the final fight. They should have left him after stealing Gilgamesh powers and fleeing injured. In part 2 they could bring some interesting themes with Thena and Kro cause Kro had Gilgamesh's memories... Another part was Gemma Chan acting could have been better towards end, she had very confused look and didn't come off as leader of Eternal by the end after Ikrais turned against them.
JDL
JDL - 12/27/2022, 10:00 AM
@MochaKing - Good Lord no. It was a beautiful, well made, bore. L&T may have been too jokey but it wasn't boring.
TheWalkingCuban
TheWalkingCuban - 12/27/2022, 7:08 AM
“Wow you can read that fast?”
“No but I can flip pages that fast”
VictorAlonzo
VictorAlonzo - 12/27/2022, 7:10 AM
Eternals 2: The Infinity Watch.
NoAssemblyReqd
NoAssemblyReqd - 12/27/2022, 7:12 AM
Not surprised Zhao won’t be back. Even Star Wars golden boy Jon Favreau hasn’t been back to direct another Marvel movie after IRON MAN 2, though he’s continued acting as Happy Hogan. Unfortunately it’s purely a PR move, even if the failure of the movie may not have been their fault. The Hollywood Business Press doesn’t shut up with its negative headlines ; only an elite few like Spielberg can be relied upon to bounce back with stellar box office when their previous movie tanked.
Unites
Unites - 12/27/2022, 7:25 AM
With all due respect, but I think no director would have be able to make a 'great' movie out of Eternals, given that Marvel wanted to introduce so many characters and tell their history all in one movie... It was too much. A series would have been better.
Repian
Repian - 12/27/2022, 7:25 AM
WEAPONXOXOXO
WEAPONXOXOXO - 12/27/2022, 8:55 AM
@Repian - that's a nice piece of art!
MochaKing
MochaKing - 12/27/2022, 9:10 AM
@Repian - Wow..... just wow...
bkmeijer1
bkmeijer1 - 12/27/2022, 10:55 AM
@Repian - I think having Galactus as a Celestial would be pretty cool.

If Arishem is the Judge, there must be an executioner right?
OmegaDaGrodd
OmegaDaGrodd - 12/27/2022, 7:52 AM
The report actually says there's a chance she won't return, not that it's unlikely she'll return, so I'm happy to hear the word is more positive that Zhao comes back than negative. I thought she brought a LOT of great stuff to the first movie, and would really love to see how she handles a film with less to introduce within its structure.

Phase 4 did a LOT of set up, and it's nice to see they have a good amount of really interesting stuff to build off of it. The idea of us going through all that stuff in Eternals only for many of those characters to get 'reset' and sent out by Arishem as tools of judgement while half the team and Eros have to deal with them would be really cool and make for some interesting dynamics
McMurdo
McMurdo - 12/27/2022, 3:38 PM
@OmegaDaGrodd - /fartnoise
MCULover
MCULover - 12/27/2022, 7:53 AM
As a longtime marvel fan(1987) The Eternals suck. Not just as a movie but the whole comic history. They are just uninteresting. Nobody wanted the first movie. I watched it because I watch everything Marvel. It was boring. My kids say it's the worst Marvel movie they have seen. It's wasted money and energy that could go somewhere else. Mr. Feign no one cares, please move on.
MCULover
MCULover - 12/27/2022, 7:55 AM
@MCULover - *Feige
CorndogBurglar
CorndogBurglar - 12/27/2022, 8:24 AM
@MCULover - The only reason to do an Eternals movie would be to help tell the history of the MCU as a whole. There were so many missed opportunities in that movie. Like you said, The Eternals are some of the must boring characters that no one cares about. Even in the comics.

The movie should have leaned more heavily into revealing secrets of the universe in the MCU. They should have used it to explain Galactus, if not outright show him. They could have set him up and explained that he is population control for the Celestials, and that he only devours planets with a Celestial fetus growing inside it. (Like Earth-X). This wouldn't have ever needed to be mentioned again, but it would have given us, the viewers a deeper understanding of Galactus and not think he's just a dick that eats planets. It's kind of like how we saw Celestials in Guardians of the Galaxy 2 phases before they ever actually took part in a movie.

They also should have mentioned that the Celestials put an extra gene in a certain percentage of humans' DNA so that when humanity and the baby Celestial inside Earth reach a certain age the humans start mutating and gaining powers. This would be to protect Earth from outside threats that may harm the Celestial growing inside. This would have given us inside knowledge for where the X-Gene comes from. Again, like Earth-X.

Just so much they could have done. But instead we got a boring movie about boring characters and a generic enemy.
MCULover
MCULover - 12/27/2022, 8:31 AM
@CorndogBurglar - to me, it's the Silmarillion. This history and backstory noone cares about except a small minority. Has nothing to do with the full picture.
GeneralZod
GeneralZod - 12/27/2022, 10:37 AM
@MCULover - I believe you would haven been too young to have remembered (or experienced) this, but in the late 70s/early 80s, Eternals comics (the 1st volume by Kirby) were derided by readers and collectors -- you literally couldn't give them away. They (along with issues of Marvel's the Human Fly) would languish in the quarter-bin box at the local comic shop. When you would go to your next door neighbor's house with your stack-o-comics, everyone would try to trade away their Eternals issues, with no success. The characters were just boring and wooden. I was quite surprised when Feige a few years ago announced that Eternals was getting its own movie.
Vigor
Vigor - 12/27/2022, 10:47 AM
@MCULover - I think of all mcu movies, the Eternals with its mature themed is the LEAST kid friendly. So it doesn't surprise me your kids think it's the worst or most boring mcu movie
MCULover
MCULover - 12/27/2022, 2:53 PM
Both my kids have seen all Tarantino films by the time they were 9 as well as quite a few Stephen King movies. Also, what is so adult about eternals? I must have missed something.
1 2
View Recorder