Eternals Star Kumail Nanjiani Responds To The Marvel Movie's Latest Delay

Kumail Nanjiani in The Big Sick

Well, gang, the Marvel Cinematic Universe film slate has shifted again, and you’ll have to wait even longer for Eternals. At the start of 2020, the movie centered on the Jack Kirby-created characters was supposed to come out on November 6, but it was later shifted to February 12, 2021. As of today, Eternals is now set to come out on November 5, 2021.

Kumail Nanjiani, who plays Kingo in Eternals, has responded to the MCU movie’s latest delay with the following tweet:

See more

Thanks to Disney’s latest round of release date changes, Eternals is arriving one year later than it was supposed to going into 2020. But as Kumail Nanjiani sees it, this is the right move given the current situation of the world, and promised fans on Twitter that the longer wait will be worth it in the long run. Addressing Eternals’ previous delay earlier this month, Nanjiani said that the movie is “the most exciting, fun, epic, thrilling, hilarious & moving project” he’s ever been a part of, as well as “massive.”

Interestingly enough, while Eternals was originally supposed to be the second film in the MCU’s Phase 4, that’s no longer the case. Along with Black Widow shifting to May 7, 2021, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings has been moved to July 9, 2021, though it was previously supposed to follow Eternals rather than precede it. So instead, Eternals will be the third film out of the MCU Phase 4 gate.

Much like the Guardians of the Galaxy were before their first movie came out in 2014, Eternals is one of the more obscure Marvel properties, with these characters descending from proto-huamanity, but boast incredibles powers and live significantly longer than humans thanks to Celestial experimentation, which also resulted in the creation of the Eternals’ arch-enemies, the Deviants. Within the MCU, the Eternals have secretly lived on Earth for over 7,000 years, but an unexpected tragedy following the events of Avengers: Endgame forces them out of hiding to defend humanity from the Deviants.

So far all we know about Kumail Nanjiani’s Kingo in Eternals is that he blends in on Earth as a Bollywood movie star and is incredibly strong, as if the actor’s jacked physique didn’t already indicate that. Nanjiani also wanted Kingo to be “full of joy” and said that he was inspired by Die Hard protagonist John McClane when playing the character.

Kumail Nanjiani’s costars on Eternals include Richard Madden as Ikaris, Gemma Chan as Sersi, Angelina Jolie as Thena, Brian Tyree Henry as Phastos, Salma Hayek as Ajak, Lauren Ridloff as Makkari, Lia McHugh as Sprite, Don Lee as Gilgamesh, Barry Keoghan as Druig and Kit Harington as Dane Whitman, better known in the comics as Black Knight. The Rider’s Chloé Zhao is directing the movie, and Kaz and Ryan Firpo wrote the screenplay.

Once again, Eternals will now hit theaters in November 2021, so keep checking back with CinemaBlend for more updates on its progress. Don’t forget to also look through our Marvel movies guide to learn what else the film side of the MCU has coming up.

Adam Holmes
Senior Content Producer

Connoisseur of Marvel, DC, Star Wars, John Wick, MonsterVerse and Doctor Who lore, Adam is a Senior Content Producer at CinemaBlend. He started working for the site back in late 2014 writing exclusively comic book movie and TV-related articles, and along with branching out into other genres, he also made the jump to editing. Along with his writing and editing duties, as well as interviewing creative talent from time to time, he also oversees the assignment of movie-related features. He graduated from the University of Oregon with a degree in Journalism, and he’s been sourced numerous times on Wikipedia. He's aware he looks like Harry Potter and Clark Kent.