Marvel certainly went big at Comic-Con on Saturday evening, rolling out its typically loaded slate as Kevin Feige laid out details of the forthcoming Phase Four of the MCU. Black Widow will be first up, and then it'll be the turn of Eternals.
Director Chloe Zhao was there to talk up the film, which Feige described as "full Jack Kirby", and formally announce the cast, including Angelina Jolie (Thena), Richard Madden (Icarus), Kumail Nanjiani (Kingo), Lauren Ridloff (Makkari), Brian Tyree Henry (Phastos), Salma Hayek(Ajak), Lia McHugh (Sprite), and Don Lee (Gilgamesh). "It’s about this group of incredible immortals but through their journey we really get to explore what it means to be human and humanity on our time on this planet,” Zhao told the audience. “It’s about this group of incredible immortals but through their journey we really get to explore what it means to be human and humanity on our time on this planet,” Zhao told the crowd, boiling down the clash between the two races created by the Celestials.
"The Eternals are a race of immortal aliens sent to Earth by the Celestials to protect humankind from the Deviants," added Madden. Ridloff signed that she is playing the first deaf character in the MCU.
Hayek, speaking about being the leader of the group, told the crowd, "I take my inspiration from our leader, Chloe, who’s also a strong woman and it takes a strong woman to do a movie like this because it’s so big and amazing and I’m so excited to be a part of it. The way she approaches leadership as a woman, as a strong woman, is that she sees them as a family. So there’s a lot of mother instincts in this Eternal, who is not supposed to have kids. So this is very exciting, and I feel very honored to be a part of a movie that is going to allow people who never felt represented in superheroes, or in this case Eternals, represented because I am proud to have a diverse family."
Said Jolie, "I’m so excited to be here. I’m going to work 10 times harder because I think what it means to be a part of the MCU, what it means to be an Eternal, to be a part of this family, I know what we all need to do. We have all read the script. We have all know what the task ahead is and we are all going to be working very, very hard. I’m training. I am thrilled."
Eternals has now been scheduled for November 2020.