We've heard conflicting reports about an Eternals sequel over the years, but at this stage, an MCU return for the team of immortal androids is looking less and less likely.
Chloé Zhao's divisive 2021 superhero epic 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.
Even so, we appeared to get confirmation that a follow-up was in the early planning stages when Game of Thrones alum Kit Harington (who made his MCU debut as Dane Whitman in the movie) suggested that the project had been scrapped.
This didn't exactly come as a major surprise to anyone, but does it mean we won't be seeing Sersi, Thena, Kingo and the others in live-action form (they are expected to appear in the Marvel Zombies animated series) again?
Our last update from Kevin Feige at D23 Brazil last year was at least somewhat hopeful, when he said he was "very proud of that movie, that cast was incredible. We’d be lucky to get any of them back at some point.”
Unfortunately, Lauren Ridloff (Makkari) isn't quite so optimistic about a potential MCU return.
Ridloff was asked by The Direct if we can expect to see the Eternals in the MCU again now that the new Avengers movies are preparing to shoot. "Not likely. I don't know, my magic eight-ball is telling me, 'Not likely.'"
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.
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.