Eternals director Chloe Zhao recently opened up about the dangers of having a big budget for Marvel movies, drawing on her own experience.
To this day, Eternals remains one of the most polarizing MCU films as critics and fans were divided on its quality and subversive take on the superhero genre. Despite grossing a decent $400 million worldwide and the teases at the end, Marvel Studios has not announced a follow-up to the film, while Zhao has moved on to other projects, such as the upcoming film Hamnet.
What is the Danger of a Big Budget on Marvel Movies, According to Chloe Zhao?
In an interview with Vanity Fair, Zhao explained how making Eternals prepared her for Hamnet while working on the MCU film.
"Eternals prepared me for Hamnet because it’s world-building. Before that, I had only done films that existed in the real world. I also learned what to do and not to do—what’s realistic and what isn’t," she said.
"Eternals had, like, an unlimited amount of money and resources. And here we have one street corner that we can afford, to [stand in for] Stratford. Eternals didn’t have a lot of limitations, and that is actually quite dangerous. Because we only have that street corner [in Hamnet], suddenly everything has meaning."
Zhao is not the only figure from Eternals who recently commented on the making of the divisive MCU film. Kumail Nanjiani, who played Kingo, also opened up about the original plan for him to appear in multiple MCU projects before it was shelved.
"I was like, ‘Oh, this is going to be my job for the next 10 years.’ I signed on for six movies. I signed on for a video game. I signed on for a theme park ride. They make you sign up for all this stuff. And you’re like, ‘This is the next 10 years of my life, so I’ll be doing Marvel movies every year and, in between, I’ll do my own little things, whatever I want to do.’ And then none of that happened," he revealed.
Is the Eternals Sequel Still Happening?
So far, Marvel Studios has not announced plans to use the Eternals in the upcoming Avengers movies.
Last year, President Kevin Feige confirmed that there were "no immediate plans" to work on the sequel, although they acknowledged Tiamut's presence in Captain America: Brave New World earlier this year.
"There are, and I think you've seen maybe in a trailer we've released recently, an acknowledgment of some of those events. Certain giant things came out of the ocean," he said at that time.
Despite that, some fans are still hoping that Marvel will bring back the Eternals in the MCU at some point in the future.
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