Before Eternals was released in theaters in 2021, excitement for the movie was massive. It had Oscar-winner Chloé Zhao at the helm, and looked set to add a new superhero team to the MCU that was even more star-studded than the cast of The Avengers.
After the reviews poured in, it was deemed Marvel Studios' first "Rotten" movie on Rotten Tomatoes. Throw in the fact that it dropped during the final months of the pandemic, and the blockbuster struggled to make its mark at the box office, grossing only $402 million worldwide.
While it was an undeniably jam-packed movie, there was plenty about Eternals that did work. Still, four years later, Marvel Studios hasn't announced plans to resolve the movie's cliffhanger, and there's nothing to suggest we'll reunite with these characters.
A handful of characters from the movie have appeared in animated projects such as What If...? and Marvel Zombies. However, it's been all quiet on the live-action front, and plans for Black Knight to team up with the Daywalker in his movie were seemingly scrapped several drafts of Blade ago.
During a recent interview with Screen Rant, Zhao was asked about the future of the Eternals in the MCU and explained what she set out to achieve with the divisive blockbuster.
"I would love that! Look, you’re right, and you understood it. It’s about a pantheon of gods discussing the nature of humanity, and ultimately their judgment. Which is what Arishem said, 'I’ll be back for judgment,'" the filmmaker shared. "And the reason why those brief plays existed is for humanity to see how the gods are seeing us, so we could evaluate how we were as a part of this cycle of the universe."
"Are we doing a good job? Are we kind to each other? Are we getting to know ourselves well enough?"
It’s there for a reason, this kind of myth, and these [MCU] films are a modern version of that to me," Zhao added. "So, I would love to bring them back and have more discussion about the world we live in. I’m really proud of it."
Earlier this year, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige was asked about the status of Eternals 2. The first movie ended on a huge cliffhanger with Sersi, Phastos, and Kingo all taken from Earth by Arishem for judgment after they helped stop Tiamut's emergence.
Thena, Druig, and Makkari, meanwhile, were confronted by Thanos' brother, Eros, who promised to help them find their friends. The stage was set for a sequel, but that cliffhanger looks set to remain unresolved.
"There are no immediate plans for Eternals 2," Feige has confirmed, adding. "There are, and I think you’ve seen maybe in a trailer we’ve released recently, an acknowledgement of some of those events. Certain giant things came out of the ocean" (that's a reference to Tiamut being the source of Adamantium in the MCU, something we learned in Captain America: Brave New World).
Would you like Eternals 2 to happen in the post-Avengers: Secret Wars MCU?