The Eternals gather at San Diego Comic-Con 2019: Kumail Nanjiani, Brian Tyree Henry, Salma Hayek, Richard Madden, Lia McHugh, Angelina Jolie, Don Lee and Lauren Ridloff.
Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for Disney
Black Widow isn’t the only Marvel Cinematic Universe adventure we’re going on in 2020 — Eternals is coming out Nov. 6. They’re the next superpowered group to join the MCU, and Marvel Studios sure has assembled an impressive cast — including Angelina Jolie, Kit Harington and a super buff Kumail Nanjiani — to get everyone interested in this cinematic debut.
The official synopsis arrived this week, and noted that the Eternals are “ancient aliens who have been living on Earth in secret for thousands of years.”
“Following the events of Avengers: Endgame, an unexpected tragedy forces them out of the shadows to reunite against mankind’s most ancient enemy, The Deviants,” it reads.
In December, a Brazil Comic Con Experience crowd was treated to the first footage and saw the heroes in costume. Last summer, Marvel Studios concept artist Rodney Fuentebella shared some art featuring the massive Celestials.
Who’s involved with this movie?
Marvel Studios head honcho Kevin Feige introduced the cast and director Chloe Zhao at the Comic-Con Marvel Studios panel last summer. Her previous film, The Rider, got a score of 92 on CNET sister site Metacritic.
The movie will reunite Kit Harington and Richard Madden, who played cousins Jon Snow and Robb Stark in Game of Thrones. Gemma Chan was previously seen in the MCU as Captain Marvel’s Minn-Erva, but Sersi is a separate character.
In December, actor and comedian Kumail Nanjiani revealed the fruits of his training — and the intense regime required to maintain it — to play swordsman Kingo in some super buff Instagram shots.
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I never thought I’d be one of those people who would post a thirsty shirtless, but I’ve worked way too hard for way too long so here we are. You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain. I found out a year ago I was going to be in Marvel’s Eternals and decided I wanted to transform how I looked. I would not have been able to do this if I didn’t have a full year with the best trainers and nutritionists paid for by the biggest studio in the world. I’m glad I look like this, but I also understand why I never did before. It would have been impossible without these resources and time. So big thanks to @grantrobertsfit who started working with me at the beginning of the year and made me understand true physical pain for months and months. Then, once we started shooting, a massive thanks to @davidhigginslondon and his team (@ellispartridge, @thebeardypt, @tomcheesemanfitness) for training me almost every day and making me strong, limber and injury free. I can almost touch my toes now. (And thank you for forcing me to do cheat meals David.) Matthews Street Catering for their delicious and healthy meals. And finally, the biggest thanks goes to @emilyvgordon for putting up with me complaining and talking about only working out and dieting for the last year. I promise I’ll be interesting again some day. #thirstyshirtless (Photo by @markupson.) (edit: I left off one very important person: @lancecallahan who trained me for 6 years and helped me build the foundation I could use to do this. Thank you!)
“I would not have been able to do this if I didn’t have a full year with the best trainers and nutritionists paid for by the biggest studio in the world,” he wrote in the caption. “I’m glad I look like this, but I also understand why I never did before. It would have been impossible without these resources and time.”
Lauren Ridloff, whom you might know as Connie in The Walking Dead, will also play the MCU’s first deaf superhero. Her character, Makkari, is male in the comics.
But what even is an Eternal, you ask? You may have already met one: Thanos. The big purple mass murderer took center stage in Avengers: Infinity War and took on a whole bunch of heroes in Endgame. He’s an Eternal in the comics, but we don’t know yet if the same is true of his MCU counterpart.
Like Captain Marvel and Guardians of the Galaxy, the Eternals will shine the spotlight on Marvel’s cosmic comic characters.
Ikarus will be played by Richard Madden. You know he’s an intense character because he’s shooting eye-beams into the sky on the cover of the sixth issue of Marvel’s 2008 Eternals comic series.
Marvel Comics
Who are the Eternals?
Thanos may be the only Eternal we’ve seen on screen, but Eternals have a comic history that stretches back to 1976. They were dreamed up by Jack Kirby, co-creator of the Avengers, the Fantastic Four and the X-Men, after he created the very similar New Gods for DC six years earlier.
In the comics, they’re an evolutionary offshoot of humanity living on Earth who possess greater powers and have longer lifespans. The Celestials, a group of space gods, created them to defend Earth.
We’ve already seen a few Celestials in the Guardians of the Galaxy movies — most notably the space station Knowhere (actually a Celestial’s severed head) and Peter Quill’s dad, Ego, (who took a human form) in the second Guardians flick.
For more on the characters from the comics, check out our sister site ComicBook.com’s detailed explainer.
What else is coming in Phase 4?
Feige gave us plenty of other movies to salivate over during San Diego Comic-Con 2019 MCU panel: Black Widow, Thor 4: Love and Thunder, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Blade.
Watch this:
Marvel’s Phase 4 plan explained
3:04
He also dished out some details about the Marvel TV shows coming to the Disney Plus streaming service: WandaVision, Loki, The Falcon and Winter Soldier, the animated What If…? and Hawkeye.
Originally published July 22, 2019 and updated regularly.