If you’re reading this, then you’ve no doubt seen Eternals by now, and just about picked your jaw up off the floor from a pair of credits scenes poised to send reverberations throughout the Marvel Cinematic Universe for years to come. And in even better news, one of them was actually a surprise!
We’ll ignore the debut of Harry Styles’ Eros for now, and instead focus on the second stinger, which teases the future of Kit Harington’s Dane Whitman. Everyone involved in Eternals played coy when it came to addressing the character’s eventual evolution into Black Knight, but it’s been signposted pretty clearly.
Not only do we see the Ebony Blade, but the offscreen voice has since been confirmed as Mahershala Ali’s Blade. Eternals doesn’t give Whitman all that much to do, but the hints towards his complicated family, tragic past and estranged uncle would have been music to the ears of comic book aficionados.
Whitman’s uncle is of course Nathan Garrett, geneticist and ancestor of a genuine Knight of the Roundtable. He’s also very evil, so evil in fact that he joined a group literally called the Masters of Evil, before handing the Ebony Blade down to his nephew. The appearance of goddamn Blade himself is what makes it even more interesting, hinting that Black Knight could be headed into the supernatural side of the MCU to fight either alongside or against the Daywalker.
Even in the absolute worst-case scenario that Eternals doesn’t get a sequel, we’re virtually guaranteed to see Harington again, this time riding into battle as the Black Knight with the Ebony Blade at his side.