The Surprising Way Marvel Prepped Angelina Jolie For Eternals' Thena
"Eternals" is finally here, and Academy award-winning director Chloe Zhao introduces Marvel fans to a whole range of powerful new heroes. The film has divided audiences and critics alike, as it has an 80% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes against a disappointing 47% critic rating. But regardless of the polarizing reaction, the new heroes bring an undeniably unique flair to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Their distinct abilities make them the perfect fighting force against the Deviants, as half of them have strength-based abilities, and the others have intelligence-based powers. Richard Madden's Ikaris is arguably one of the strongest characters in the film, boasting super-strength, laser-eyes, and the ability to fly. While Druig (Barry Keoghan) is able to control the minds of hundreds of humans simultaneously. It makes for an interesting dynamic between the group, because the fighters want to tackle problems head on while the thinkers take a more calculated approach to certain situations.
Thena (Angelina Jolie) has one of the most visually impressive skill sets, since she uses cosmic energy to manifest a variety of weapons mid-battle. However, producer Nate Moore revealed to Screen Rant that Thena's brain is buckling under the weight of her long life — a process first described in the comics as Mahd Wy'ry. As such, she is often unreliable, and is a danger to herself and others. But Marvel had a pretty surprising way to prepare Angelina Jolie for her role as Thena.
Marvel Studios sent Angelina Jolie plenty of weapons
Since this is Angelina Jolie's first Marvel movie, she was keen to keep the dialogue flowing between herself and the studio — especially when it came to handling all of Thena's beautiful weaponry. Speaking with BBC Radio 1's Ali Plumb about pre-production for the film, the star explained, "It was actually very challenging. I studied ballet to make her long, and then I remember calling and saying, 'Can you send me my weapons?' Because I was late to get to London and I need to practice.'"
However the star was a little confused when various knives, swords, and spears arrived for her. "All these different weapons would show up and I kept trying to get an answer from Marvel as to which one is my weapon," she said, adding, "'I feel like you guys aren't deciding or somebody's not telling me.'" And that's when Jolie was told about the true nature of Thena's powers and how she could transform them all at will. "They eventually said, 'No it's all of them and then they have to switch as you go,'" she said.
The actress went on to say that the weapons they used during production could change shape to practically mimic her abilities "We'd have full sticks that would also break in half and turn into different things, or stick back together..." With a smile, Jolie also added "it was a little complicated, but lots and lots of fun."