Millie Bobby Brown and Marvel: the eternals explained

Even with all the characters introduced in the first decade of the Marvel film universe, these films have barely scratched the surface of what's in the world. And it seems that Phase 4 of the MCU adds another new great franchise: The Eternals. We met Thanos, but what about the rest of his people?

Reports indicate that The Rider director Chloe Zhao will direct Marvel's The Eternals and that Angelina Jolie is in talks in the film. (Could she play the Eternal character known as Sersi? Some fans think so!) Millions Bobby Brown, Kumail Nanjiani and Richard Madden would also be in the movie. But who exactly are the Eternals? Let's explore their story of comics and how they fit into the grand scheme of the Marvel Universe.

For even more Explained stories, check out Marvel's Shang-Chi story, what you need to know about Wonder Woman 1984, the naughty Cheetah, and details on the upcoming potential cosmic movie of Marvel, Nova.

Note: This story has been updated to reflect the latest developments regarding Marvel's Eternals movie.

The Eternals: The Basics

Eternals are a powerful breed of cosmic beings that have existed in our solar system for millions of years. Most Eternals look perfectly human from the outside, but their advanced biology gives them incredible strength, a long life, and powers that place them far above mortal men.

The Eternal and their genetic cousins, the Deviants, were created by the cosmic gods. known as Celestials through experiments on early proto-humans. And where most Eternals have chosen to follow the path of peace, the Deviants are hateful and warlike, with their ugly exterior appearance reflecting their twisted inner nature. Both races are struggling with an endless war since the beginning, with humanity sometimes having to pay the price.

The Marvel Movie Universe: All Upcoming Movies and TV Shows

The Powers and Abilities of the Eternals

All The Eternals share a range of basic abilities. Their bodies are incredibly resistant and resistant to age and disease. They can also regenerate from most wounds. To kill an Eternal requires a lot of planning and effort.

Eternals have the potential to develop many superhuman abilities, including super-strength, flight, telepathy, and strength. field generation and transmutation. However, most tend to focus on developing their specific abilities. For example, Ikaris has incredible meanings to listen to, while Makkari's signature ability is to run at high speed and Sersi can manipulate objects at the atomic level.

Eternals also have the ability to merge their bodies and powers to form a powerful psychic construct. called Uni-Mind.

The Eternals: Origin and Background

The Eternals are one of the many Marvel properties created by artist Jack Kirby. These characters made their debut in The Eternals # 1 in 1976, when Kirby returned to Marvel after a brief spell at DC Comics. The new series allowed Kirby to explore themes and ideas similar to those of his unfinished Four World saga, including the idea of ​​two advanced cosmic races locked in an endless war. The series also showed an obvious influence from the novel by writer Arthur C. Clarke, Childhood & # 39; s End.

Unfortunately, The Eternals did not find the audience that many of Kirby's previous projects had done, and the series was canceled before his story could be told. finished. Finally, the writers Roy Thomas and Mark Gruenwald have solved some of these problems in the pages of The Mighty Thor. This crossover Thor / Eternals paved the way for a more active role of these characters in the larger universe of Marvel.

These early stories establish the general history of the Eternals, their relationship with the Deviants and their major heroes like Ikaris, Sersei. and Makkari. As readers knew, these heroes imitated the gods of Greek and Roman mythologies and won worshipers on the rare occasions when they truly revealed themselves to humanity.

The early Eternal comics also revealed that there were multiple branches of the Eternals family scattered throughout the world. solar system. The Eternals were initially divided after a war between the Kronos brothers and Uranos, the first maintaining a peaceful settlement on Earth and the more warlike faction of the latter establishing a colony on Uranus. The Eternals of the Earth were further divided when Kronos was killed in an accident and his sons were forced to reign in his place. Zuras became the new leader of the Eternals, as A & rsquo; s went to Titan's moon, married a woman named Sui-San and rebuilt this world in ruins.

If the name "A & # 39; lars" That sounds good, he is also the father of Thanos, by far the best known of Eternals. Thanos carries the Deviant gene, which explains why his appearance and nature are so much more twisted than those of his family.

The Eternals appeared sporadically in various series of short comics in the decades that followed. Writer Peter B. Gillis and artist Sal Buscema relaunched the series in 1985, which featured 12 issues. In 2000, a comic entitled New Eternals: Apocalypse Now, No. 1, chronicled an older conflict between the Eternals and the evil X-Men, Apocalypse. In 2003, writer Chuck Austen and artist Kev Walker revived the franchise for the MAX matte print focused on Marvel readers, thus giving rise to The Eternal.

The most ambitious restructuring of Marvel, that of the franchise, occurred in 2006, when the writer Neil Gaiman and the artist John Romita, Jr. wrote a new version of the franchise, easy to read, composed of seven numbers. This series later gave birth to a new Eternals cartoon in progress, although it was canceled after just nine issues.

The Eternals: Beyond the Comics

Although having more than 40 years at this stage, the Eternals franchise has hardly been exposed to the outside. comics from Marvel. The only appearance of the franchise so far, in the form of a comic book, takes the form of a series of Marvel Knights 2014 animation films, in which the comic Gaiman / Romita was converted into a animated cartoon with sound effects. Several Eternals characters also appeared in the free Marvel Heroes video game, including Ikaris and Sersi.

But while the Eternals as a whole have been left out of various Marvel multimedia projects, Thanos himself has received a lot of visibility. The character of course played a leading role in Avengers: Infinity War (played by Josh Brolin) and Avengers: Endgame. Infinity War also refers to Thanos's father, A & # 39; lars, and presents the abandoned moon of Titan. At one point, Marvel's Kevin Feige hinted that the film was in development, with rumors indicating that Sersi would be the central character. In May 2018, Matthew and Ryan Firpo were hired to write the screenplay. In September 2018, Rider director Chloe Zhao was nominated to direct the film. In March 2019, THR reported that Angelina Jolie was in talks in the film and that an "aspect of the story involves the love story between Ikaris, a man powered by cosmic energy, and Sersi, who likes to move among humans ". More recently, the names of Millie Bobby Brown, Kumail Nanjiani and Richard Madden have appeared. We will probably know more about the project and we will finally have the official confirmation of Marvel in San Diego Comic-Con!

Jesse is a writer with gentle manners for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket in as a result of @jschedeen on Twitter or Kicksplode on MyIGN.