MARVEL PREVIEW
Kevin Feige And The Multiverse Of Movies.
DIRECTOR CHLOÉ ZHAO STARRING ANGELINA JOLIE, SALMA HAYEK, RICHARD MADDEN, KUMAIL NANJIANI ETA 6 NOVEMBER 2020
As Marvel’s Phase 4 gets underway, Eternals arrives with the first big superteam. Officially announced by Marvel’s Kevin Feige in April 2018, details have been drip-fed ever since for this first cinematic adaption of Jack Kirby’s 1976 comic about a group of godlike immortals embroiled in a war with a rival race, the Deviants, over thousands of years.
This year’s SDCC, however, saw those drips turn into a gush, as Feige promised something “entirely new and entirely different”. With Feige announcing an official release date of November 2020, he was joined on stage in Hall H by a glittering cast that includes Salma Hayek (as Eternals leader Ajak), Angelina Jolie (Thena), Bodyguard’s Richard Madden (Ikaris) and The Big Sick’s Kumail Nanjiani (Kingo).
Rounding out the other Eternals? Korean actor Ma Dong-seok (Gilgamesh), Widows’ Brian Tyree Henry (Phastos), Lia McHugh (Sprite) and Lauren Ridloff (Makkari), who will play Marvel’s first deaf hero. “Through their journey, we really get to explore what it means to be human,” said incoming director Chloé Zhao, who is working from a script by Matthew and Ryan Firpo.
For all the cool casting on show, one of the most exciting hires arguably comes in the shape of Zhao. The writer-director of acclaimed indie
The Rider and the upcoming Nomadland continues Marvel’s recent move towards hiring talented female filmmakers – following Anna Boden, co-director of Captain Marvel and Cate Shortland for the upcoming Black Widow.
As Hayek put it, “I take my inspiration from our leader Chloé. It takes a strong woman to do a movie like this. The way she approaches leadership as a strong woman, she sees them as a family. There’s a lot of mother instincts in the Eternals… I feel honoured to be part of a movie which will show people who aren’t represented [on screen].”
Post Comic-Con, rumours immediately started flying that Zhao is planning to shoot at least part of Eternals on 16mm Ektachrome film, giving it an entirely different look from the majority of Marvel movies. Whether this is a hint that Eternals will stay distinctly separate from the rest of the MCU is hard to say (after all, Thanos was once part of the group).
While there is still no confirmed word on the villains – whispers suggest that the half-Deviant Maelstrom may have a part to play – we’ll just have to be patient and take comfort from Jolie’s words. “We all know what the task ahead is,” she says, “and we know what you deserve.”