There’s an awful lot of world-building that goes into every Marvel Cinematic Universe blockbuster, especially one as ambitious and often unwieldy as Eternals.
Chloé Zhao’s cosmic epic had to introduce a dozen brand-new characters we’d never met before, establish their backstory and history, all while tying them into a mythology that’s been ongoing for thirteen years without anybody even hinting at their existence.
Critics don’t think the two-time Academy Award winner managed to pull it off with suitable aplomb, but the fans definitely do. Now that the titular team has had their origins explained within the boundaries of MCU canon, the stage is set for an even broader canvas to be painted on should sequels end up getting the green light.
In an interesting addition to the lore, Zhao revealed in an interview with Empire that Thanos’ homeworld of Titan once had ten Eternals of its own, which tees up the notion that teams of superpowered defenders could be stationed on any number of planets across the universe.
“He’s [Eros] an Eternal, and he was stationed on Titan – 10 of them were, just like the 10 Eternals on Earth, assuming Titan is also a host planet at some point. Now, if you think about that, what influence could Eros have had on the inhabitants of Titan, the way Ajak has influenced people on Earth? And how that has affected Thanos?”
Having managed to pass $400 million at the box office despite bearing the distinction of being the MCU’s worst-reviewed installment ever, Eternals supporters are getting anxious waiting to discover what the future holds, but at least we know Zhao has a massive standalone mythology to play with in the best-case scenario.