Eternals Director Chloe Zhao Still Working on the Final Cut

Had it not been for the pandemic, Marvel’s Eternals film would have been released in theaters months ago, as it was originally slated for a late 2020 debut. After several shifts to the release schedule, however, Eternals is currently preparing for its premiere this November, giving director Chloe Zhao and the post-production team a ton of time to really fine-tune everything and get the film just how they want it. And right now, in the midst of an awards season where she has been raking in hardware just about every week, Zhao is hard at work finishing her final cut of Eternals.

The edit of the film is still being tweaked by Zhao, who usually edits all of her own movies. Nomadland, the film that has been earning numerous awards, was edited by Zhao. However, with a film as big as Eternals, Zhao is bringing in editors to collaborate on the process. Dylan Tichenor and Craig Wood are editing Eternals, working closely with Zhao to deliver the final cut.

While speaking to Sundance Collab, Tichenor talked a bit about Zhao’s process, and how they’re still tinkering with the final cut ahead of its release.

“I am [working] right now [with] Chloe [Zhao]. Chloe edits her movies and she has strong opinions. But she also wants to know everything I’m thinking, and frankly, we did the whole first cut without much input from her in terms of takes or this or that,” Tichenor explained. “And she just watched it. And the things that she wants to tweak, we tweak. But by and large, she has really relied on our experience and our point of view. That’s why we’re hired, you know, for our creativity and our experience. And sense of humor. But I think that makes the best result.”

At this point, fans have no idea what to expect from Eternals, mainly because we have yet to see any footage or official photos from the film. There are four Marvel movies hitting theaters in 2021, but only Black Widow has been advertised to this point. Once Black Widow is finally released, we will hopefully start to see more from the other films on the slate.

Are you looking forward to Marvel’s Eternals? Let us know in the comments!

Eternals is set to hit theaters on November 5th.