On the latest episode of the Awards Chatter podcast, 2-time Academy Award-nominated Eternals director Chloé Zhao - who was nominated again this year for her work on Hamnet - discussed her time on the divisive Marvel Studios epic.
Zhao has previously said that she was proud of how Eternals turned out, but when asked about the critical and commercial reception, the filmmaker admitted that the movie simply wasn't that high a priority for Marvel, possibly suggesting that not quite enough time and effort was put in to make the film the best it could be.
“Eternals was not high on their priority list,” she explained. “Because it’s a quite unique IP and it [was] only on their list of potential players. You know, with Marvel, it’s very much a thing to find the right filmmaker before they say, ‘That’s the IP we’re gonna go for.’”
Zhao also noted that Kevin Feige saw how passionate she was about the property, trusting her to make a film that “literally no one in the world was interested in."
In another recent interview, revealed that she was in contention to helm a different MCU movie before landing Eternals.
"I went in at first for Black Widow, and then there was a scheduling conflict. And then when Nate Moore, my producer for Eternals, showed me the treatment, I went, 'Oh, wow, I get to have all these immortals, like a Greek play, to discuss humanity. And then I get to create monsters and space gods, right?' It probably should have scared me. I don’t know. I tend to jump before I know how to swim"
We've heard conflicting reports about an Eternals sequel over the years, but at this stage, another movie revolving around the team of immortal androids is looking less and less likely.
Eternals has its defenders, but it's hardly surprising that Marvel isn't in any rush to revisit these characters. Zhao's 2021 film not only had the dubious honor of being the first Marvel Studios movie to drop to "rotten" status on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, but also finishing up its U.S. run with a disappointing $164.9 million to give it one of the lowest domestic hauls of any MCU-set film.
Tiamut did appear in Captain America: Brave New World, but the gigantic Celestial was only used as a plot device to introduce Adamantium to the MCU. It's difficult to imagine Marvel completely disregarding everything else associated with Eternals, but at the same time, we're not sure which planned big or small screen projects make sense to facilitate their return.
Would you like to see the Eternals back in the MCU? Let us know in the comments section down below.
Marvel Studios’ Eternals follows a group of heroes from beyond the stars who had protected the Earth since the dawn of man. When monstrous creatures called the Deviants, long thought lost to history, mysteriously return, the Eternals are forced to reunite in order to defend humanity once again.
The outstanding ensemble cast includes Gemma Chan as humankind-loving Sersi, Richard Madden as the all-powerful Ikaris, Kumail Nanjiani as cosmic-powered Kingo, Lia McHugh as the eternally young, old-soul Sprite, Brian Tyree Henry as the intelligent inventor Phastos, Lauren Ridloff as the super-fast Makkari, Barry Keoghan as aloof loner Druig, Don Lee as the powerful Gilgamesh, with Kit Harington as Dane Whitman, with Salma Hayek as the wise and spiritual leader Ajak, and Angelina Jolie as the fierce warrior Thena.