Eternals is bringing Richard Madden into the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Ikaris, an immortal being with some Superman-like powers. Not only can he fly, move faster than any normal person, and land a punch with something extra behind it – but he also shoots lasers from his eyes. This laser vision was, in fact, one of the trickier facets of the Ikaris power set that the Game of Thrones alum had to learn to portray on the set of Marvel’s new film. Madden talked with ComicBook.com, as seen in the video above, about bringing this power set to the MCU and how they may have fared in the feud with Thanos.
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“With my energy beams in my eyes, that was one that you kind of practicing going, ‘Does this look stupid?’ And like, ‘Are the video effects guy’s gonna make me look dumb?’” Madden joked in the exclusive interview. “Then, they did such amazing jobs to make it look cool. And then they kind of did same with your flying. You’re like, ‘I’m flying. I want to look cool, but I don’t want to look like Peter Pan. Is this weird?’ But Gemma [Chan] was always there to tell me when I looked dumb and she often did. And that was a really good help because it stopped me looking stupid on camera.”
In the film, Madden’s Ikaris and Chan’s Sersi are very much at the center of the film as its love story. As the story goes, the two have had a bumpy relationship through their thousands of years on Earth. In that time, they were privy to the Avengers fighting with Thanos and their efforts to revive half of the lives in the universe but sat out the fight for reasons which are explained in the film. With or without this information, Madden seems to believe Ikaris wouldn’t have cared to intervene with the Mad Titan’s schemes from Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame.
“I don’t know if Ikaris would have been like… Ikaris can sometimes be detached and be like, ‘Okay, what’s this guy doing? All right. It’s none of my business, I’ll just stand back,’” Madden said with a laugh. “So I don’t know what he would have done.”
Meanwhile, Chan has some fine ideas for possible crossovers. “The Eternals have been on Earth for the last 7,000 years so they could’ve had several run-ins with various different characters,” Chan said. “I actually really think that Sersi and Valkyrie would have a lot of fun together.”
Are you excited to see Marvel’s Eternals? Share your thoughts in the comment section or send them my way on Instagram! Eternals hits theaters on November 5.
