Although some of the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies released during The Multiverse Saga have hit well with audiences, including Spider-Man: No Way Home, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and Deadpool & Wolverine, others have failed to achieve success, be it critically or commercially. Eternals falls into both categories, with the 2021 Marvel movie (which can be streamed with a Disney+ subscription) earning mixed reception (CinemaBlend’s Eternals review gave it 3 stars out of 5) and only making $402 million worldwide off a reported budget exceeding $236 million. Well as it turns out, Eternals director Chloé Zhao believes the movie’s large budget ended up being “dangerous” to the production.
While speaking about her 2025 movie Hamnet, which premieres at the Toronto Film Festival on September 7 and arrives to the public on November 27, Zhao mentioned that her work on Eternals was actually a crucial “bridge” to her work on this historical drama. As she explained to Vanity Fair:
Eternals prepared me for Hamnet because it’s world-building. Before that, I had only done films that existed in the real world. I also learned what to do and not to do—what’s realistic and what isn’t. Eternals had, like, an unlimited amount of money and resources. And here we have one street corner that we can afford, to [stand in for] Stratford…. Eternals didn’t have a lot of limitations, and that is actually quite dangerous. Because we only have that street corner [in Hamnet], suddenly everything has meaning.
Hamnet follows William Shakespeare and his wife Agnes following the death of their 11-year-old son, from whom the movie gets its title. Needless to say a production like this didn’t need a budget exceeding $200 million, but from Chloé Zhao’s point of view, Eternals might have benefitted from also having a reduced budget. While that obviously doesn’t mean the Marvel movie could have been made off the amount of money Hamnet was working with, the filmmaker believes having too much money on that kind of project can be detrimental when it comes to creativity.
I do see where Zhao’s coming from on this, though “dangerous” was an odd word choice. Oftentimes these small-scale productions stand a better chance of feeling more personal compared to a studio blockbuster. However, that’s not to say trimming some of the budget off of Eternals would have automatically resulted in it being a critically acclaimed movie. Ironically, while many reviewers praised its visuals, Eternals’ story and pacing were the subject of much criticism. It just goes to show that putting a lot of money into something doesn’t mean automatically mean it will be a product that everyone likes.
As of this writing, the only notable way the events of Eternals have been followed up on is through the “Celestial Island” being a key plot point in Captain America: Brave New World. As the wait continues to learn if any of these starring characters will pop back up in the MCU, remember that the next upcoming Marvel movie will be Spider-Man: Brand New Day on July 31, 2026.
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