Marvel’s Eternals Trailer Was Intentionally Vague for Good Reason

The first trailer for Marvel’s Eternals was released last month, and while it showcased the movie’s star-studded cast, it didn’t give much away in terms of story. The movie, which is being helmed by Academy Award-winning director Chloé Zhao, is one of the first Marvel films in a long time to feature a whole new cast of characters, the other being Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. During a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Walt Disney Studios‘ head of marketing, Asad Ayaz, talked about the Eternals trailer and explained why they chose not to give much away.

“With Loki, you look at the release date of your film or series, and you kind of work backwards from that based on the story you want to tell over the course of the campaign. We put a lot of thought and a lot of creativity into what we want the fans to experience, what we want fans to own when they see the film and not necessarily spoil it pre-release. If you saw the Eternals teaser, it really gave nothing away. It’s just an introduction to the characters and tone. It was a very, very early tease. We have so much more to do on that. We will be very judicious because we do have other films and shows prior to Eternals hitting. And Eternals is such a special movie with all-new characters, and we have two Marvel movies prior to that. So that gives us an advantage in using those to expose people more to Eternals, but also spacing things out,” Ayaz explained.

He added, “Loki and Black Widow are two very creatively unique properties. You look at the Shang-Chi trailer and the Black Widow trailer and the Eternals trailer teaser, they are all completely unique. They don’t feel they are bleeding into each other or redundant or repetitive in any way. So that’s a wonderful thing for us to have as a marketing team. We are making sure that the way fans experience them is unique and special and it doesn’t feel like you’ve got all these different Marvel properties hitting you at the same time.”

Eternals is currently scheduled to hit on theatres on November 5th. The rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s 2021 line-up includes Loki, which releases new episodes on Disney+ on Wednesdays, Black Widow in theatres and Disney+ Premier Access on July 9th. What If… on Disney+ in August, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings in theatres on September 3rd, Hawkeye and Ms. Marvel coming to Disney+ later in the year, and Marvel’s Spider-Man: No Way Home in theatres on December 17th.