It’s no secret that Marvel Studios had big plans for Eternals before the movie came out, but fans just got some new details on what might have been. Kumail Nanjiani played Kingo in the movie, and he just revealed the scope of his contract including future movie appearances, a possible video game appearance, and even a ride at a theme park. Nanjiani was a guest on the podcast Working It Out, revealing to host and fellow comedian Mike Birbiglia that he is currently working on stand-up material about his experience on Eternals. He said that the project ultimately led him to go into therapy, and to try to change the way he thinks about his work.
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“I was in this movie that was, like, a big movie, and it came out right after COVID,” Nanjiani explained. “I had a year and a half at home to just be like, ‘Oh, when this thing comes out…’ And it came out and it got really bad reviews and it didn’t do that well. It shattered me too much and that’s when I was like, ‘Oh, I need to like go to therapy to figure this out.’”
It didn’t take much prompting for Nanjiani to admit, “It’s a movie called Eternals — you know, big Marvel movie. I was like, ‘Oh, this is going to be my job for the next 10 years.’ I signed on for six movies. I signed on for a video game. I signed on for a theme park ride. They make you sign up for all this stuff. And so you’re like, ‘Oh, this is the next 10 years of my life, so I’ll be doing Marvel movies every year, and then in between I’ll do like my own little things, whatever I want to do.’ And then none of that happened.”
What Was the Plan for Eternals?
Fans could do quite a bit of speculating with the knowledge that Nanjiani expected to appear in six Marvel Cinematic Universe movies within 10 years, but it would only be speculation. It’s possible that at the time, Marvel had an idea of the team’s next few appearances and how to integrate them into the MCU, but it’s also possible that they locked in as many movies as possible from the start to avoid renegotiating contracts. After all, it can be prohibitively expensive for Marvel to keep its biggest stars when their contracts are up, as we saw with Robert Downey Jr.
Eternals was a commercial success, especially considering the timing of its release, as movie theaters were severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and, in some ways, they still haven’t recovered. In truth, it was the response from fans and critics that hurt Eternals and ultimately led Marvel to drop the team. Critics felt that the movie introduced too many new ideas too quickly, contrasting it with the slow built towards Avengers crossovers in the past. Still, the directing and performances all received praise, and even won some prominent awards.
With that in mind, we can still hold out hope that Marvel will enforce Nanjiani’s contract and weave the Eternals into the MCU somehow. For now, all we know for sure is that there’s no direct sequel in the works. Eternals is streaming now on Disney+. Where and how would you like to see the immortal team turn up in the MCU? Let us know in the comments below.
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