‘The Eternals’ Reportedly Casting Marvel’s First Openly Gay Male Lead

With Captain Marvel and Avengers: Endgame coming down the pipeline, the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is starting to shape up, including new casting developments for The Eternals.

A report from That Hashtag Show indicates that Chloe Zhao and Marvel Studios are hoping to cast their first openly gay man in a lead role, possibly as Ikaris of the Eternals. According to the report, Marvel is taking precautions to keep the identity of this role a secret.

Of course, while Ikaris is one of the main characters in Jack Kirby’s original The Eternals comic, there are other possibilities for who this potential actor could be playing.

According to the report, filming is set to begin on The Eternals in the United Kingdom later this September, concluding in January 2020. After Avengers: Infinity War and Spider-Man: Far From Home premiere, expect Marvel Studios to reveal more information about the movie.

Marvel boss and producer Kevin Feige explained why the Eternals are the perfect group of characters to get the big screen treatment next, equating them to other lesser known properties that have since gone on to become focal points for the entire company.

“You’re 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,” Feige told Bionic Buzz. “So for us, its 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.”

While he’s still being very secretive about a lot of details from the film, Feige did tease that the storyline could greatly expand the scope and scale of the Marvel Cinematic Universe after Avengers: Endgame.

“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,” Feige told Collider. “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.”

The Eternals does not yet have an announced release scheduled, but Marvel Studios has reserved the date of November 6, 2020 for a new film.

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