“Throughout the years, we have never interfered. Until now,” says Ajak (Salma Hayek) in Marvel’s Eternals, about immortal beings who must reunite after centuries apart to stop a world-ending event delayed by the snap of a finger. In the wake of Avengers: Endgame, set five years after Thanos (Josh Brolin) snapped away half of all life in the universe in Avengers: Infinity War, the Eternals are finally forced out of the shadows to reunite against mankind’s oldest enemy — The Deviants. But these long-hidden superheroes have just seven days to stop the even greater threat to the planet: The Emergence.
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“Five years ago, Thanos erased half of the population of the universe, delayed The Emergence. But the people of this planet brought everyone back with the snap of a finger,” Ajak tells the Superman-like Ikaris (Richard Madden) from her South Dakota ranch in a clip debuted during Hayek’s appearance on The Graham Norton Show. “After I let you all go, I traveled the world, living among them. I have seen them fight, and lie, and kill. I have also seen them laugh and love, I’ve seen them create and dream.”
“This planet, and these people,” says the spiritual leader of the Eternals, “have changed me.”
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It was the sudden return of half the population that provided the necessary energy for The Emergence to begin, and those people will perish if the Eternals can’t regroup and stop the apocalyptic threat. Their mission comes after humankind’s saviors sat out the universe-upending events of Infinity War and Endgame, ordered not to interfere by their creators: the Celestials.
“[The audience] will understand why [the Eternals didn’t act],” director Chloe Zhao previously told Total Film. “Not only why, but how complicated not interfering made them feel. We explore that. You’ll see that in the film. The Eternals were instructed not to interfere with any human conflict unless Deviants are involved. There’s a reason why that’s the case. And that was the instruction from the prime Celestial Arishem.”
Read ComicBook‘s spoiler-free Eternals review. Starring Gemma Chan, Richard Madden, Kumail Nanjiani, Lauren Ridloff, Brian Tyree Henry, Salma Hayek, Lia McHugh, Don Lee, Barry Keoghan, Angelina Jolie, and Kit Harington, Marvel’s Eternals opens only in theaters on November 5.
