Eternals Will Explore The Team's Non-Interference In The Snap
With the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) once more chugging along after the COVID-19 pandemic scuttled many of its scheduled releases, audiences have finally been able to explore the realities of a "post-snap" world. Recent Disney+ shows like "WandaVision" and "The Falcon and The Winter Soldier" have explored the immediate impacts of half of Earth's population simultaneously disappearing and reappearing. With "Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings," fans finally got a movie set post-snap, though the events of the film didn't dwell on that reality.
Now, with Marvel's next theatrical release, "Eternals," devotees of the MCU will be introduced to a set of impossibly ancient, cosmic beings with incredible power. Given how old and powerful the Eternals are, many fans scratched their heads in puzzlement over the fact that they made no attempt to stop Thanos from erasing half of all life in the universe.
Clearly, Marvel is too finely oiled a machine to ever make such a large error of omission. Speaking with Total Film, "Eternals" director Chloe Zhao assured audiences there's a perfectly good reason why the Eternals stayed on background during the events of "Avengers: Infinity War," and she explained that it wasn't a split-second decision for the heroic team.
The Eternals were conflicted about not interfering with the snap
Fans have already been given the basic justification for the Eternals' lack of assistance in the snap. They were instructed by the Celestials (beings of untold power, even by Marvel standards) to remain uninvolved unless a Deviant is involved. Director Chloe Zhao says it won't be relegated to the background of the film, though, saying audiences would "understand why" the Eternals made such a tough decision. "Not only why, but how complicated not interfering made them feel. We explore that. You'll see that in the film."
That makes one more in a long list of reasons to anticipate "Eternals," on top of its rogue's gallery of impressive screen talent, from a weirdly shredded Kumail Nanjiani to Angelina Jolie and "Game of Thrones" veteran Kit Harrington. Zhao is eager to point out that, while the snap will come up in the film, it won't be the central plot. "What excited me is the idea of going back in time, and exploring before Thanos was born, before anyone was born. Where does the MCU go back in time? And that brings us to the mythology of the Celestials. Anything involving the Celestials is going to be at a huge scale level of complication, let's put it that way."
The last time we saw a Celestial in the MCU, it was a living planet who threatened to consume the galaxy, so that may be putting it mildly. "Eternals" opens in theaters November 5th.