The Marvel Cinematic Universe is constantly expanding, thanks to new projects arriving in theaters and streaming with a Disney+ subscription. But those of us who have spent years watching the Marvel movies in order have seen a few missteps in the years since Endgame hit theaters. That includes Chloé Zhao's Eternals, with Kumail Nanjiani recently sharing he signed on for six movies and years of work... which never happened. And now fans are sticking up for the ill-fated blockbuster.
While Eternals won at the box office upon its release, but it failed to resonate with audiences. A sequel for Eternals seemingly isn't happening anytime soon, despite the narrative that began with Zhao's MCU debut. Recently Nanjiani went viral for a clip from the Working It Out podcast, where he spoke about his expectations when joining the MCU. In his words:
I was like, ‘Oh, this is going to be my job for the next 10 years.' I signed on for six movies. I signed on for a video game. I signed on for a theme park ride. They make you sign up for all this stuff. And you’re like, ‘This is the next 10 years of my life, so I’ll be doing Marvel movies every year and, in between, I’ll do my own little things, whatever I want to do.’ And then none of that happened.
What a bummer. Historically taking on a major comic book role has resulted in years of employment for Marvel stars, especially the OG Avengers. But that's not what happened Zhao's blockbuster, which introduced a new team of heroes who still haven't been seen or heard from again. And this is particularly puzzling since Eternals' ending set up huge things for the entire MCU.
After the events of the movie, Arishem arrives on Earth and takes a number of members of the team into space, including Nanjiani's Kingo. Then the Etenals credits scene then introduced Harry Styles' Eros, who was seemingly going to help the rest of the team in a rescue mission.
There's been no indication that Eternals is getting a sequel, and the events of the film weren't even acknowledged for years... until the release of Captain America: Brave New World. While the movie is still canon, we should't hold our breath for a follow-up film to the infamous 2021 movie.
After Nanjiani's comments went viral, plenty of folks are coming out of the woodwork to defend the quality of Eternals. Folks on Twitter made their voices known, with choice comments reading:
- Eternals being one of the MCU’s best movies and getting treated like the piece of cheese from the Diary of the Wimpy Kid will never sit right with me. - @english_shamar
- Haters wanted the usual cut and paste Marvel movie, but got the closest thing to a FILM Marvel has ever done and said “This is one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen”…ok. - @dionrs94
- Bro. I don’t get it! The film is shot beautifully, the characters are unique and interesting, but it gets no love. - @blkbat21
- I think it just didn’t have major heroes and that turned people off. No one has given me a legit reason to this day. - @blkbat21
- It was a great movie, i feel like the eternals just weren’t widely known and because of that everybody says “wah wah wah it sucks” but I thought it was a phenomenal movie - @pedrohuertag12
It sounds like there are some Eternals defenders out there... despite the franchise ending before it could really get off the ground. But Marvel Studios is known for keeping fans on their toes, so maybe one day Kevin Feige and company will do an aboutface and bring back its cast. After all, there were some serious A-listers involved in the property including Angelina Jolie.
Eternals is streaming on Disney+ along with the rest of the MCU. The shared universe will return to theaters with Spider-Man: Brand New Day on July 31st of next year as part of the 2026 movie release list. We'll just have to see if any upcoming Marvel movies ring back Eternals characters.
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