Eternals Star Gemma Chan Reveals Why Marvel Brought Her Back After Captain Marvel

There are a lot of familiar faces in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, including actors who have shown up as different characters in previous films; that will happen once again when Gemma Chan leaves her supporting role as Minerva from Captain Marvel behind, taking the spotlight as the main character Sersi in Eternals. Chan recently spoke with THR in support of her new HBO Max film Let Them All Talk when she detailed the circumstances for her return to Marvel Studios, while also speaking a bit about the differences between Eternals and Captain Marvel.

"My character dies in [Captain Marvel], so I thought there was no chance that I would really be coming back, which I was a bit bummed about," said Chan. "But then I encountered [Marvel Studios boss] Kevin Feige during the awards circuit for Crazy Rich Asians and out of the blue, he just came up and said, 'We'd love to have you back. We'd love to make better use of you. We want you to do something else, so let's find that project.' But, to be honest, I had no idea that it would be so soon."

Chan still can't speak at length about the movie due to its latest delay. Eternals was originally meant to be out in the public by this point, but was pushed back multiple times and will now hit theaters in November 2021 because of the coronavirus shutdowns.

"It felt very different. It's a really epic story. Very ambitious," Chan said. "I feel like it's going to be a superhero movie that is not like a superhero movie. That sounds like a very obvious thing to say, but they're trying to do something different with this film. So we're all crossing our fingers that it works and that people respond to it. We shot a lot on location, using a lot of natural light. There wasn't that much bluescreen stuff, which I did quite a lot of on Captain Marvel. [Sersi is] very empathetic and her powers come from an unexpected place."

While Minerva met her certain fate in Captain Marvel, Chan is positioned for a major role moving forward in Eternals. We'll get to see what these cosmic beings have in store for the Marvel Cinematic Universe next year when Eternals premieres in theaters on November 5, 2021.