The Marvel Cinematic Universe has, even by its own admission, struggled at points since Avengers: Endgame and it all kind of started with Eternals. The first few releases after Avengers: Endgame were strong, like Spider-Man: Far From Home, Black Widow, and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.
Eternals was meant to continue that trend thanks to a talented cast, an acclaimed director, and an intriguing premise. Unfortunately, the movie ended up as the MCU’s first true flop in a handful of ways. While you could point to several things that went wrong, there’s one thing it could’ve done to actually be a success.
Eternals Is Viewed As The MCU’s First Critical Flop
Celestial Arishem judging Earth in Eternals
Before getting into what Eternals could’ve done to work better, it must first be pointed out that it struggled with critics and audiences alike. To this point, most people felt that a film like Thor: The Dark World was the low point of the franchise, but even that movie has a positive Rotten Tomatoes score of 67%.
So when Eternals reviews started pouring in and the film sat at 47%, it became the franchise’s first poorly received film. Most of the negative responses pointed towards the film being a bit confounded and overstuffed. The ambition was praised, yet the execution felt like it was off. However, there’s one way that could’ve been resolved.
Eternals Should’ve Been A TV Series
brian tyree henry as phastos in the mcu’s eternals
Ultimately, what made Eternals struggle was that it was a movie when it should’ve been a TV show, especially when you consider the tall task the film had to overcome. The film had to introduce us to Sersei, Ikaris, Phastos, Thena, Kingo, Sprite, Makkari, Druig, Ajak, and Gilgamesh with no prior knowledge of them.
It’s next to impossible to get an audience to care about 10 brand new characters in the span of two and a half hours. That’s why The Avengers came after several solo films introduced us to the heroes, rather than throwing them all at audiences in one movie.
Those 10 characters are also not counting Dane Whitman, Phastos’ family, Kingo’s assistant, and the Celestials like Arishem. Even the best written film will have trouble getting audiences to connect to that much in a short time. Eternals as an MCU Disney+ series would’ve fixed all those problems.
A series with 10 or so episodes would allow closer to 500 minutes for us to get acquainted with these characters. Each could have an episode dedicated to them rather than the movie, which barely gave screen time to the likes of Druig or Makkari. Had this happened, the reception would’ve likely been much stronger.
The Director & Cast Of Eternals Should’ve Remained The Same
Ajak comforting Thena in Eternals
As noted, one reason people were excited about Eternals was the people behind it. The cast is one of the best and most diverse in any MCU movie. In a world where there are many white male superheroes, this film featured nationalities from around the world and several key female characters.
It was the first MCU project to feature a major deaf actor in a key role (Hawkeye quickly followed up), giving it more representation. Each actor delivered in a big way as well, even if they weren’t given a ton of moments on the big screen.
Rising stars like Brian Tyree Henry and Lia McHugh were strong, underrated performers like Kit Harrington, Gemma Chan, and Richard Madden were great, and established players like Salma Hayek and Angelina Jolie were very good, just to name a few.
On top of the cast, Eternals also benefited from an incredible director in Chloé Zhao. Fresh off becoming the second woman to win the Best Director Academy Award, Zhao made sure the visuals in Eternals were stellar. With more time to develop everything in a TV show, she would’ve been even more impressive.
It Doesn’t Look Like We’ll Get More Of The Eternals, Which Is A Shame
Tiamut rising from the ocean in Eternals
Ultimately, the disappointing response critically and commercially for Eternals means that we are unlikely to get anything else from these characters. Several MCU loose threads are hanging because of this movie, from Arishem appearing in the sky to the debut of Thanos’ brother Eros.
While several major characters from these post-Avengers: Endgame projects are popping up again or have plans, nothing has been said of the Eternals. The actors aren’t lined up for new projects in the franchise, even if it was just for cameos.
Even the post-credits scene featuring the voice of Blade is likely going nowhere since production on that film has been messy. If Eternals would’ve been a TV show and ended up as a hit that way, we likely would’ve gotten more from them, which the performers deserve.
Release Date
November 5, 2021
Runtime
156 minutes
Director
Chloé Zhao
Writers
Chloé Zhao, Patrick Burleigh, Ryan Firpo, Kaz Firpo
Producers
Kevin De La Noy, Kevin Feige, Louis D’Esposito, Victoria Alonso
