Eternals 2 Rumors: Why Avengers vs. X-Men Should Take Place Before Judgment Day

Christmas has come and gone and now we're all in that lull before the New Year. Though Hollywood effectively shuts down this week, there have been plenty of rumors regarding the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, including whispers of the Eternals franchise getting another feature film. In fact, one of those whispers suggests Eternals 2 will be based upon Marvel's recent Judgment Day event that saw the Eternals pitted against the Avengers and X-Men. That means should Marvel Studios be adapting that event, fans would likely never see one of the biggest event titles it has in its stable: Avengers vs. X-Men.

Published in 2012, AvX was a commercial juggernaut, topping comics sales charts for virtually all of its run, and for good reason—it featured an all-star creative team of some of the best creators the industry's ever seen, including Brian Michael Bendis, Matt Fraction, Jason Aaron, Ed Brubaker, Jonathan Hickman, John Romita Jr., Olivier Coipel, and Adam Kubert.

At its root, the story features the Avengers and X-Men facing off against each other as the Phoenix wrecks havoc across the cosmos. Naturally, the Avengers would much rather prefer Earth still exist, and the two groups go to war over the character's destruction and the X-Men's defense of the icon.

The Eternals aren't involved in the story whatsoever, but the Avengers vs. X-Men brand carries too much potential to just skip over. Grossing just (relatively speaking) $402 million worldwide, Eternals is one of the worst performing—both critically and commercially—productions in the entirety of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and right now, it would seem Marvel Studios would be making a grave mistake leaping over the AvX event in favor of Judgement Day.

Where will the Eternals appear next?

While a direct sequel has been confirmed, Nate Moore confirmed with ComicBook.com earlier this month the characters would, in fact, return. "I don't want to spoil anything, but we have not seen the last of those characters," Moore told us on the press tour for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Eternals is now streaming on Disney+.

When is Harry Styles returning as Eros?

The beloved musician officially made his MCU debut in an Eternals post-credits scene, appearing alongside Oswalt's Pip in a brief moment. While it has yet to be seen how his character will return, Kumail Nanjiani revealed earlier this year the character's debut was nearly a lot different.

"I started hearing rumblings of it here and there, and I thought it was bullshit," Nanjiani told the podcast. "I was like, 'The guy from One Direction? No way.' Then you show up to work one day, and there's gorgeous Harry Styles. 'Hey, mate!' I'm like, 'Hey, what are you doing here, man?' We actually shot a different scene with Harry Styles because the ending now, my character is not in that scene. But we shot a version where I was with him. And it was a very… it was a different sort of post-credit sequence."

"We didn't… We don't really– we didn't really talk. We just sort of like made eyes at each other from afar. No, it was sort of… I don't know if I'm allowed to say…" the Eternals star added when asked what happened in the alternate take.

Eternals is now streaming on Disney+.