Eternals Director Chloe Zhao Explains What Makes Her Most Excited for Her Marvel Movie

Outside of joining the largest franchise in Hollywood, Chloé Zhao knows exactly what drew her to Eternals. In an upcoming story for Total Film, Zhao says the world-building is something that excited her most about the project. As seen in the teaser release, Eternals certainly unlocks a whole new corner of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, one that will be fleshed out in what’s likely to be a franchise in and of itself.

“I love building a world and then you put people in that world and they create chemistry with each other that you just can never predict, and you have to roll with the punches a little bit once you see that chemistry. It’s exciting for me,” Zhao tells the magazine.

The director is hot off a few big wins at this year’s Academy Awards — including Best Director — for Searchlight’s Nomadland.

“Just like sculpturing, you never want it to end. You just want to keep going until they tell you you can’t keep going anymore….I think everyone in my life close to me knows that I’m maybe working a little too much,” the filmmaker previously told Variety. “Yes! This afternoon I’m going back to Disney to work on Eternals. Right after this interview. I’m probably late.”

“Jack Kirby and his imagination, his incredible work, is really the foundation of it. On top of that, there is what Marvel Studios has built, this incredible journey they have going on. And then on top of that is me as a fan of the MCU,” she added. “And then, me as a fan of the genre, but also growing up with sci-fi and manga and fantasy films. And how can we have this big melting pot and cook up something that may just taste a little bit different? It was just an exciting thing; all of us went in wanting to do that. We’ll see.”

Eternals is currently set for release on November 5th.

What’d you think of the first look at Chloe Zhao’s Eternals? Let us know your thoughts either in the comments section or by hitting our writer @AdamBarnhardt up on Twitter to chat all things MCU!