The MCU’s First Rotten Movie’s Sequel Chances Addressed By Director, After 4 Years of Silence

During the age of the Infinity Saga, Marvel Studios established itself as the premier blockbuster powerhouse by putting together an unprecedented string of well-received films. While some movies were better than others, the first 25 installments of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (including the first couple of Multiverse Saga films) earned a Fresh critics score on Rotten Tomatoes. That impressive hot streak ended four years ago when Eternals hit theaters. With a 47% score, it became the MCU’s first Rotten film. After that reception, Marvel has no “immediate plans” for Eternals 2, but director Chloe Zhao is remaining hopeful.

Speaking with Screen Rant, the Oscar winning director addressed the possibility of returning to the world of Eternals for a follow-up movie. “I would love to bring them back and have more discussion about the world we live in,” she said. “I’m really proud of it.”

Will Marvel Ever Make Eternals 2?

There is a lot of untapped potential with the Eternals concept. The first film ended by setting up a variety of threads to explore later on, including Arishem’s threat to return, Black Knight, and the introduction of Eros. While this year’s Captain America: Brave New World featured Celestial Island as a key location, Marvel hasn’t done much with elements from Eternals over the last handful of years. The return of Celestial Island showed Kevin Feige and Co. aren’t just ignoring Eternals and are always thinking of ways to connect it to the rest of the MCU, but right now, the odds of Eternals 2 getting off the ground are low.

It’s been said that Avengers: Secret Wars is going to serve as a soft reset of the MCU. Rather than be a hard reboot that completely wipes the continuity clean, the Secret Wars reset aims to discard select aspects that didn’t fully resonate. Eternals falls under that umbrella. Though Zhao deserves credit for crafting an ambitious film that attempted to introduce a bevy of new characters to the franchise, Eternals struggled to connect with critics and audiences. Especially considering Marvel’s recent box office struggles over the course of the Multiverse Saga, it seems unlikely the studio would take another chance on something that didn’t work when they need reliable box office hits. There’s a reason why it’s expected popular characters like Spider-Man, the Avengers, and the X-Men will be the focus of features moving forward.

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If Eternals was better received, the property would have had a very bright future. Marvel was bullish on Eternals and had big plans for the characters. Over the summer, star Kumail Nanjiani, who played Kingo, detailed his Marvel contract included six film appearances, a video game, and a theme park attraction at least. None of that has come to fruition in the wake of Eternals‘ uneven performance. Tellingly, no Eternals cast members are included in the Avengers: Doomsday ensemble, which currently consists of 27 actors and has the potential to expand even further. There’s been no shortage of rumors about other characters who could show up (Spider-Man, Wolverine), but it’s all been silent on the Eternals front. Marvel would probably look to bring Eternals characters back for Avengers films if they intended on eventually moving forward with a sequel.

It’s an unfortunate fate for Eternals because it did have a lot of things going for it, even if it was a bit overstuffed. It tried to do something different with the classic Marvel movie formula and flesh out the MCU’s in-universe history in fascinating ways. A talented filmmaker like Zhao surely had some interesting ideas to explore in sequels, and it would have been nice if she had an opportunity to bring them to the screen. At the same time, Marvel’s hesitancy to make Eternals a substantial part of the MCU’s future is understandable. When Eternals was produced, Marvel was riding an unprecedented high, but now the franchise is in a place where it needs to get back on track. Streamlining the continuity is what’s best.

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