Eternals Star Barry Keoghan Reveals Why He Thinks Marvel Fans Didn't Like the Movie

Marvel's Eternals star Barry Keoghan thinks he know why Marvel fans did not respond to filmmaker Chloe Zhao's epic, saying that the film, and the kind of raw and naturalistic performances Zhao encourages, were "new for the Marvel world."  The star seems to still be quite fond of the film in an interview with the Happy Sad Confused Podcast, where he seemed to struggle to articulate why he thought the movie failed to connect with critics and audiences. That's similar to comments made by co-star Kumail Nanjiani recently, saying that while he understood the movie was "divisive," he still loves it and thinks it was ambitious.

The movie opened up a new chapter in Marvel's mythology, giving audiences the idea that the battle between superhuman good and evil has been taking place on Earth for centuries. Characters from Eternals have not been key players yet in the next stage of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but it will be interesting to see which characters find themselves elevated once Kang becomes an existential threat.

"I think Chloe brought a whole kind of feel to it," Keoghan said. "You know? So Chloe brings -- as you've seen from her past films -- raw performances and really, really touching performances. I don't think it was… I think it was new. I think it was just new. It was new for the Marvel world."

You can see the synopsis for Marvel's Eternals below.

Marvel Studios' Eternals welcomes an exciting new team of Super Heroes to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The epic story, spanning thousands of years, features a group of immortal heroes forced out of the shadows to reunite against mankind's oldest enemy, The Deviants.

The Eternals cast includes Angelina Jolie as Thena, Richard Madden as Ikaris, Kumail Nanjiani as Kingo, Lauren Ridloff as Makkari, Brian Tyree Henry as Phastos, Salma Hayek as Ajak, Lia McHugh as Sprite, Don Lee as Gilgamesh, Gemma Chan as Sersi, and Barry Keoghan as Druig. Kit Harington also stars as Dane Whitman, a.k.a. the Marvel Comics hero Black Knight.

You can see the movie now on Blu-ray, DVD, Digital, and stream it on Disney+.

In addition to Eternals, Keoghan recently appeared briefly in The Batman, in which he played an unnamed Arkham inmate suspected to be The Joker in future installments of the Matt Reeves-directed origin story.