Taglines: In the beginning…
Eternals Movie Storyline. After an unexpected tragedy following the events of Avengers: Endgame (2019), the Eternals—an immortal alien race created by the Celestials who have secretly lived on Earth for over 7,000 years—reunite to protect humanity from their evil counterparts, the Deviants.
Marvel Studios’ Eternals features an exciting new team of Super Heroes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, ancient aliens who have been living on Earth in secret for thousands of years. Following the events of Avengers: Endgame, an unexpected tragedy forces them out of the shadows to reunite against mankind’s most ancient enemy, the Deviants.
Eternals is an American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics race of the same name. Produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, it is intended to be the 26th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). The film was written and directed by Chloé Zhao, with Patrick Burleigh also contributing to the screenplay.
It stars an ensemble cast including Gemma Chan, Richard Madden, Kumail Nanjiani, Lia McHugh, Brian Tyree Henry, Lauren Ridloff, Barry Keoghan, Don Lee, Gil Birmingham, Harish Patel, Kit Harington, Salma Hayek, and Angelina Jolie. In the film, the Eternals, an immortal alien race, emerge from hiding after thousands of years to protect Earth from their evil counterparts, the Deviants.
In April 2018, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige announced that a film based on the Eternals had begun development, with Ryan and Matthew K. Firpo hired to write the script in May. Zhao was set to direct the film by late September, and was given freedom to use her own style when making the film such as filming on location more than previous Marvel Studios films.
Zhao re-wrote the screenplay, which Burleigh was later revealed to have also contributed to. Starting in March 2019, a diverse cast was hired to portray the Eternals which include the depiction of an LGBTQ superhero. Principal photography took place from July 2019 to February 2020, at Pinewood Studios as well as on location in London and Oxford, England, and in the Canary Islands. Eternals is scheduled to be released in the United States on November 5, 2021, as part of Phase Four of the MCU.
About the Filming
By the film’s official announcement in July 2019, principal photography had begun at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire, England. Ben Davis served as director of photography, after doing so on several previous MCU films. Zhao said Marvel Studios allowed her creative freedom to shoot the film on location, “exactly the way [she] wanted to shoot” it.
She was able to use a similar style to her previous films, including 360° shots and working with the same camera and rigs as was used for her film Nomadland (2020), which Zhao was set to complete back-to-back with The Eternals. Zhao felt that she “got lucky in that Marvel wants to take risks and do something different.” Zhao cited The Revenant (2015) as a primary influence when composing the film’s action sequences.
Gemma Chan and Barry Keoghan were in talks to join the cast in August 2019. Chan previously portrayed Minn-Erva in Captain Marvel, but reports noted that she was potentially being looked at by Marvel to play a separate character in this film. Since Minn-Erva dies in that film, Chan had felt that it was unlikely she would return to the MCU, but after working on the film she was told by Feige that the studio wanted to “make better use” of her in a future project.
This led to Chan auditioning for Sersi, one of the last actresses to be considered for the role. Chan later described Sersi as the most difficult role for the film to cast. Chan and Keoghan were confirmed to be cast in the film at the D23 Expo in August, in the roles of Sersi and Druig, respectively, along with Kit Harington as Dane Whitman. Chan said she and Marvel Studios were surprised by how soon after Captain Marvel her new MCU role came, with both assuming that it would have been a project further in the future.
By early November, filming took place in the Canary Islands. The filming cast and crew, including Jolie and Madden, had to be evacuated from a shooting location on the island of Fuerteventura when an explosive device was found there. The device was thought to be a remnant armament from a Nazi base. Later that month, Zain Al Rafeea joined the cast.
In early January 2020, filming took place outside the Oxford University Museum of Natural History in Oxford, England, as well as Hampstead Heath and in Camden in London, under the working title Sack Lunch. Chan said the filming process felt very different to what she experienced on Captain Marvel, explaining that Eternals shot more on location and utilized natural light while Captain Marvel had more studio work and bluescreen. Filming wrapped on February 4, 2020.
Eternals (2021)
Directed by: Chloé Zhao
Starring: Gemma Chan, Richard Madden, Kumail Nanjiani, Lia McHugh, Brian Tyree Henry, Lauren Ridloff, Barry Keoghan, Gil Birmingham, Harish Patel, Kit Harington, Salma Hayek, Angelina Jolie
Screenplay by: Chloé Zhao, Patrick Burleigh
Production Design by: Eve Stewart, Clint Wallace
Cinematography by: Ben Davis
Film Editing by: Craig Wood, Dylan Tichenor
Costume Design by: Sammy Sheldon
Set Decoration by: Pancho Chamorro, Maya Henson, Abigail Mieszczak, Michael Standish
Art Direction by: Todd Ellis, Matthew Gray
Music by: Ramin Djawadi
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: Walt Disney Pictures
Release Date: November 5, 2021 (United States)
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