Follow TV Tropes

Following

Trivia / Eternals

Go To

All spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned!

  • Actor-Inspired Element:
    • Barry Keoghan suggested the Headbutt of Love between Druig and Makkari after the final battle ends. According to Lauren Ridloff the rest of the cast were surprised by it when they saw the finished film.
    • A behind the scenes example - Angelina Jolie came up with the idea of using a laser pointer to help direct Lauren Ridloff when the camera was rolling while she was facing away from the director.
  • All-Star Cast: Gemma Chan, Richard Madden, Kumail Nanjiani, Kit Harington, Salma Hayek, Brian Tyree Henry and Angelina Jolie, among others. In fact, Lia McHugh could be seen as notable for being the only member of the main cast who wasn't well-known before landing her role.note  The two stingers also add Harry Styles, Patton Oswalt, and Mahershala Ali to the mix.
  • Approval of God: Jim Starlin gave his blessing for Patton Oswalt's casting as Pip the Troll, as he had long enjoyed Oswalt's work in the past, and thought his voice was perfect for Pip. And while he was initially unfamiliar with Harry Styles, Starlin eventually voiced his approval for his portrayal of Eros after looking him up and admitted to becoming a Converted Fanboy of One Direction shortly afterward.
  • Awesome, Dear Boy:
    • Chloé Zhao was reportedly the one to actually approach Marvel about directing the film, having been a fan of the MCU and wanting to add her own mark on the franchise. And having been a lifelong fan of Manga, she found the allure of Worldbuilding a sci-fi epic too irresistible to pass up.
    • After spending many years lobbying and failing to get into a big-budget blockbuster, Salma Hayek was incredibly excited to join something like the MCU. She also was very humbled to have become a superhero in spite of being a Mexican woman in her mid-50s, which isn't exactly the mold of the traditional archetype.
  • Banned in China:
    • Due to Chloé Zhao's outspoken comments about mainland China, Eternals was never released in theaters for China.
    • The film was announced to be banned in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Oman due to the countries wanting to cut out scenes of Phastos and his husband, which Disney refused to allow. It was also banned in Kuwait and Qatar due to the countries being against depicting gods and prophets on film.
  • California Doubling: Averted with the London sequences, which were filmed on location, but played straight with the Mesopotamia and Amazon rainforest sequences, which were filmed in Spain- the Mesopotamia scenes were filmed on the Canary Islands of Fuerteventura and Tenerife-the Tenochtitlan scenes were filmed in Pinewood Studios in London, and the Alaska forest scenes were also formed in Surrey, Southern England.
  • Creator Backlash: Not towards the film itself but toward its reception. Kumail Nanjiani has said in interviews that he was disappointed that the film received lukewarm reviews, and that it took such a huge toll on him that he had to go to therapy.
  • Creator's Oddball: Whilst this is far from the first time Marvel have hired an off-beat indie director for one of their massive blockbusters, Chloé Zhao is an especially notable case as all of her previous films (Songs My Brother Taught Me, The Rider, and Nomadland) were all quiet, intimate, naturalistic tone-poems starring or prominently featuring non-actors which is a far cry from the millennia spanning, all-star ensemble cast, epic superhero film that is Eternals.
  • The Danza: Kingo's valet is Karun Patel, sharing a surname with his actor, Harish Patel.
  • Deleted Scene: See here.
  • Disabled Character, Disabled Actor: Makkari is deaf and is played by Lauren Ridloff, who is also deaf.
  • Dyeing for Your Art: Kumail Nanjiani got absolutely ripped for his role and found himself humorously noting that he'd become the kind of person who posts shirtless photos of himself online. Apparently, Nanjiani took his fitness so seriously that Chloé Zhao and one of the film's producers actually requested him to dial it back because of how hard he was pushing himself.
  • Enforced Method Acting: Lauren Ridloff's father gave the main cast lessons in American Sign Language so that their usage of the language to communicate with Makkari was all the more genuine.
  • Executive Meddling: A positive example. Although Chloé Zhao had an unprecedented of level creative freedom on this film, it originally had a very definitive beginning, middle, and ending. Kevin Feige requested that Zhao make it more open-ended and add a Sequel Hook, which she agreed was a good idea.
  • Hostility on the Set: Salma Hayek and Chloé Zhao got into a heated argument regarding the script while working on this film. While the specifics aren't entirely known, the two did eventually find middle ground, and Hayek noted that their discussion overall was a very positive experience for her.
  • Never Work with Children or Animals: The filmmakers couldn't stop the dog from wagging his tail when the monster rises in the water and it had to be taken out in post-production.
  • Old Shame: While it wasn't a bomb, the film did not do well either critically or financially, so Marvel has been rather hesitant to explicitly acknowledge its existence, and a proper sequel has yet to be announced.
  • Promoted Fanboy: If this short film of him playing Spider-Man is any indication, Barry Keoghan was a fan of Marvel long before getting cast as Druig in this film.
    • He's pretty much admitted this. When he was cast in 2019, he retweeted one of his old tweets from 2013 in which he asked Stan Lee to make him a superhero. Guess that proves that it never hurts to ask, right?
  • Queer Character, Queer Actor: Haaz Sleiman, who plays Phastos' husband, Ben, is gay himself.
  • Real-Life Relative: Bill Skarsgård, who plays Kro, joins his father, Stellan Skarsgård of Thor, in the MCU.
  • Recast as a Regular: Gemma Chan, who plays Sersi, had previously played the one-off villain Minn-Erva in Captain Marvel. According to Kevin Feige, Chan being cast as Sersi was done because he deeply regretted that her talents were wasted in Captain Marvel, and wanted to work with Chan on a film once again.
  • Release Date Change: Initially, the movie was set for a November 6, 2020 release. When Black Widow (2021) was rescheduled for that date The Eternals moved back to February 12, 2021 and eventually moved again to November 5, 2021. The latter move put it behind Shang-Chi on the release schedule. This also notably meant that Chloe Zhao had already won an Oscar for Nomadland by the time it was released.
  • So My Kids Can Watch: In a similar case to Destin Daniel Cretton's decision to helm Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Don Lee's choice to play Gilgamesh was influenced to be an inspiration for the younger generation as the first Korean superhero in the MCU.
  • Throw It In!: According to Lauren Ridloff, Makkari's scream was not in the script. She decided to do it in a take and was happy that it made it into the final cut.
  • Voice-Only Cameo: Doubling as a Wham Line, Mahershala Ali has one as the first "appearance" of Blade in the post-credit scene.
  • What Could Have Been:
    • Sofia Boutella, Marie Avgeropoulos, and Tatiana Maslany were considered for the role of Sersi before the casting of Gemma Chan. Maslany would eventually go on to play Jennifer Walters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
    • Charlie Hunnam, Alexander Skarsgård, Armie Hammer and Sam Heughan were considered for the part of Ikaris before Richard Madden was cast.
    • Ana de Armas, Eiza González, Gina Rodriguez and Naomi Scott were considered for the role of Ajak before the casting of Salma Hayek.
    • Keanu Reeves, Luke Evans, Rami Malek and Ian McShane were considered for Druig before Barry Keoghan was cast.
    • Millie Bobby Brown was approached for the part of Sprite before the casting of Lia McHugh.
    • Travis Knight, Nicole Kassell and Cristina Gallego and Ciro Guerra were considered to direct the movie before Chloé Zhao was hired.
    • Thena was initially going to have a much smaller role in this film, to the point of being a minor cameo. After Angelina Jolie got the role however, she expanded upon and fleshed out the character much more, causing Thena to be rewritten to have a larger prominence in the film.
    • Disney and Marvel officials publicly speculated on the film's release strategy, with Kevin Feige suggesting whether it launched primarily in theaters or on Disney+ would be contingent on the box office performance of Shang-Chi. When Shang-Chi proved to be a clear theatrical success, Disney announced days later that Eternals would indeed release exclusively in theaters for 45 days.
    • Chloe Zhao initially conceived twelve Eternals to appear in the story rather than ten, but had to cut two of them as it proved to be too many characters to juggle and give the appropriate amount of characterization for. The two cut Eternals were later revealed to be Zuras (the leader of the Eternals in the comics) and Valkin.
    • Unused ideas for The Stingers included some of the Eternals being recruited for a new Avengers line-up and an appearance from Jonathan Majors as Kang the Conqueror. There was also an idea for the person who speaks to Dane when he's about to lift the Ebony Blade to be Anthony Mackie as the new Captain America, rather than Mahershala Ali as Blade.
    • There were originally supposed to be hints that Druig and Sersi had been romantically involved at some point in the past leading to tension between them when the group comes to his rainforest home to recruit him. This thread was dropped after Chloé Zhao saw how well Barry Keoghan and Lauren Ridloff played off each other and decided to develop the relationship between Druig and Makkari instead.
    • According to the screenwriters, there was a scene of Kingo in the Gupta Empire that would've highlighted the contrast between his past and present self, but it was cut from the final film.
    • Early in development, Eternals was conceived as being a TV show rather than a film, but apparently it felt very disconnected and so was repurposed into being a movie.
    • According to Zhao, the film originally had a much darker ending:
      It used to end with everybody back on the ship, minds erased and just going on to another planet, like The Twilight Zone. I remember when it goes to black, everyone was like, "I don't know what to do". And also, it's the MCU, and you want to be excited for what's next.
  • Word of God: According to director Chloe Zhao, the Eternals were not victims of Thanos' blip. This is due to the fact that they are artificial beings, thus they were not subjected to its effects.
  • You Look Familiar: Sersi is played by Gemma Chan, who previously portrayed Minn-Erva in Captain Marvel (2019).
  • You Sound Familiar:

  • With Chloé Zhao winning Best Director at the 93rd Academy Awards for Nomadland, she became the very first Best Director winner to helm an MCU movie. She is also only the second nominee for said award to direct an MCU feature, following Kenneth Branagh (director of Thor, nominated for Henry V, won a screenwriting award years later for Belfast). Notably, she won the award during post-production on Eternals (with Nomadland having been filmed during its pre-production). Also, while Taika Waititi (Thor: Ragnarok) won an Oscar previously for Jojo Rabbit, the award was for screenplay rather than directing.

Top