Captain Marvel and Avengers: Age of Ultron Cinematographer Reportedly Joins The Eternals

Marvel Studios veteran Ben Davis has boarded The Eternals, DiscussingFilm reports.

Davis first boarded the Marvel Cinematic Universe on James Gunn's Guardians of the Galaxy before teaming with Joss Whedon on Avengers: Age of Ultron and Scott Derrickson on Doctor Strange. Davis most recently shot Captain Marvel for directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck and again partnered with studio Disney on the Tim Burton-directed Dumbo.

Marvel has already recruited director Chloé Zhao (The Rider) and tapped Angelina Jolie (Maleficent: Mistress of Evil), Kumail Nanjiani (Men in Black: International), and Dong-seok Ma (The Outlaws) for unknown roles. Filming is expected to get underway this September in London.

In November, That Hashtag Show claimed the assemblage of characters will include Marvel Comics' lesser-known Eros/Starfox, brother of Thanos (Josh Brolin), Piper, Elysius, Gilgamesh, Ikaris, Sersi, Makkari, Thena, and Zuras. In March, the mighty Hercules was rumored to serve as a leading character.

Marvel is also said to be on the hunt for its first openly gay male lead.

"Your reaction about not being familiar with the Eternals is perfect, because most people weren't familiar with Guardians [of the Galaxy] and believe it or not there were people that were not familiar with Avengers or with Iron Man," Marvel Studios chief and master planner Kevin Feige previously told Bionic Buzz.

"So for us, it's finding great stories whether people have heard of them or not and bring them to the big screen in as amazing a way as we can."

Created by Jack Kirby, who co-created the Fantastic Four and the X-Men for Marvel Comics with Stan Lee, the Eternals are a genetically-altered race of long-living superbeings created by way of Celestial experiments.

Also birthed out of the experiments were the Eternals' enemies, the genetically unstable Deviants, who stood among the Elder Races of the cosmic Marvel universe — a humanoid race that predates humanity and once ruled the Earth.

Disney's newest hopeful franchise could explore the MCU over thousands of years, borrowing from Kirby's "immense, amazing epic," Feige previously told Collider during the Captain Marvel press tour.

"Everything after [Avengers:] Endgame, and after Spider-Man: Far From Home, will be different and be unique, as we try to make every film. But seeing returning characters is certainly something we're gonna do and want to do. But also introducing characters that the majority of the world has never heard of, much like Guardians [of the Galaxy], much like Avengers before we made Avengers. And there are lots of them," Feige said.

"Eternals are one group, but we like the idea of introducing an ensemble, doing an ensemble movie from the start, as opposed to building up as we did with the first Avengers. More like Guardians, not tonally, but in terms of introducing a new group of people. You were asking about '60s, and '70s before. Jack Kirby did an immense, amazing epic with Eternals that spans tens of thousands of years, and that's also something we haven't really done, which is why that among many other things post-Endgame, we find appealing."

Disney has yet to officially date The Eternals, suspected to fill the studio's already-staked November 6, 2020 release date.

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