Though a lot of fans feel that Chloé Zhao's Eternals is highly underrated, the movie was not well-received by critics when it arrived in theaters in 2021, and actually ended up becoming the MCU's first "Rotten" entry with a 47% score on Rotten Tomatoes.
We had heard that the overall negative reception was not something the studio was anticipating, and this has now been confirmed by Kingo actor Kumail Nanjiani.
“It was really, really hard because Marvel thought that movie was going to be really, really well reviewed, so they lifted the embargo early and put it in some fancy movie festivals and they sent us on a big global tour to promote the movie right as the embargo lifted,” Nanjiani revealed on the latest episode of the Inside of You podcast.
Nanjiani says he was "too aware" of the reviews, and found it especially difficult to do press for the movie in the midst of the backlash.
“I think there was some weird soup in the atmosphere for why that movie got slammed so much, and I think not much of it has to do with the actual quality of the movie,” he continued. “It was really hard, and that was when I thought it was unfair to me and unfair to [my wife] Emily, and I can’t approach my work this way anymore. Some shit has to change, so I started counseling. I still talk to my therapist about that.”
There has been some talk of an Eternals sequel (though nothing has been made official), but even if a direct follow-up never materializes, Marvel almost certainly has plans for the characters that were introduced in the movie.
Based on Nanjiani's comments, though, we're not sure if we'll be seeing Kingo again!
“Emily says that I do have trauma from it,” he continued. “We actually just got dinner with somebody else from that movie and we were like, ‘That was tough, wasn’t it?’ and he’s like ‘Yeah, that was really tough,’ and I think we all went through something similar.”
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.
What did you guys think of Eternals? Drop us a comment down below, and click here to find out what we made of the film.