Tag: Chloe Zhao

Posted on in News

SPOILERS: Chloe Zhao Confirms Secret Cameo In ‘Eternals’

*SPOILERS AHEAD FOR ETERNALS YOU’VE BEEN WARNED*

This weekend finally sees Chloe Zhao’s MCU debut with Eternals after multiple delays due to the pandemic and brings the Jack Kirby characters to the big screen alongside Kit Harington’s Dane Whitman, aka, The Black Knight Knight.

Without getting too deep into the other big post-credit scene, a second one features Whitman and another unseen character that is only heard. Director Chloe Zhao has now confirmed to Fandom that this character is indeed Mahershala Ali’s Blade, who will lead his very own solo film directed by Bassam Tariq (Mogul Mowgli).

Dane Whitman (Kit Harington) is by himself, staring at a case with his family crest on it. Dane has to psych himself up, saying “You can do this, you can do this,” before he opens the case and reveals a sword inside, as an eerie sound briefly erupts from within the case. Dane translates words inscribed on the inside of the case, reading “Death is my reward.” He looks down at the sword, which has some sort of strange, liquid-like movement rippling across it. As he prepares to touch the sword, Dane declares, “I’m sorry, I have to try,” only to be interrupted by the voice of a man, who we don’t see, but who says to Dane, from off-camera, “Sure you’re ready for that, Mr. Whitman?”

“That was the voice of one of my favorite superheroes, Mr. Blade himself. Blade, Blade, Blade, yeah,” Zhao tells Fandom confirming Blade’s cameo in the post-credit scene.

This isn’t a huge revelation as Mahershala Ali’s Blade was announced all the way back at San Diego Comic-Con 2019 and the reboot movie is said to begin production next year, potentially for a release date in 2023/2024.

However, Eric Brooks’ interest in the Ebony Blade or preventing Dane from using it is unclear, but it’ll be interesting to see if Blade/Brooks will be showing up in other projects before his solo film. Then again, Brooks has been known to get involved with all sorts of occult heroes and Black Knight would technically be part of that group given the supernatural death curse attached to the Ebony Blade.

Could Blade be recruiting Whitman for The Midnight Sons?

SOURCE: FANDOM

Posted on in Features

‘Eternals’ & Olympians Essentially Same Sect Of Immortal Aliens In The MCU?

The next big Marvel Studios release to grace the big screen will be Chloe Zhao’s Eternals, which will see the MCU version of the team. We already know that the film incarnation will be different than their comic book counterparts and a new detail might help link them to a similar group of god-like aliens.

Marvel’s Nate Moore recently revealed to Comic Book another slight tweak to the Eternals origin, stating the group of immortals are from an alien planet called Olympia.

“In the past we see the Eternals, who, in our version of the mythology, are immortal aliens from a planet called Olympia. [They’ve] been asked by the Celestials to come to Earth to rid the Earth of creatures called the Deviants. The Deviants are these parasitic aliens who go from planet to planet, and as they kill the apex predators on a given planet, they sort of take the characteristics of those predators and wipe out intelligent life. Well, the Eternals are heroes, so they’ve come to earth to eradicate the Deviants and allow humanity to thrive.”

In the comics, Olympia aka High Olympus was set on Earth in Greece.

Interestingly enough, The Olympians (Marvel’s cosmic version of the Greek pantheon of gods) will be officially introduced in Thor: Love & Thunder after Australian actor Russell Crowe revealed he’d be playing the MCU version of Zeus in the sequel.

I don’t exactly see why Marvel wouldn’t have Zeus and The Olympians also being from this planet of Olympia as a streamlined way to be less confusing to audiences by making the groups essentially interchangeable. This might also be why Zuras (Thena’s father) isn’t in the film, both Zeus and Zuras have similar character designs in the comics.

Zeus, of course, is the father of demigod Hercules Panhellenios aka The Prince of Power, who just happened to be on The Avengers roster around the same time as Gemma Chan’s Sersi and Kit Harington’s Dane Whitman aka Black Knight.

Adding a bit of fuel is that director Chloe Zhao told Empire Magazine that the Eternals are “akin to stories of Greek and Roman gods, who live very human lives with human traits, rivalries, jealousies and frailties.”

It’s hard not to notice this information only further distancing themselves from Thanos and Titan. In the trailer, Ajax (played by Selma Hayek) explained that The Mad Titan wasn’t a Deviant, which prevented them to interfere with his dastardly plan to kill half the universe (addition of Olympia could suggest he’s not an Eternal either). This line was also likely out of convenience because Marvel wasn’t even thinking about bringing Jack Kirby’s obscure creations, The Eternals, into the MCU until Chloe Zhao pitched them on the idea.

However, nothing stops them from making Titans like Starfox part of the Eternals/Olympian group.

The MCU version of Deviants could also have a larger connection to Lemurians and world of Namor/Atlantis, if Lemuria and Atlantis both were sunk during The Great Cataclysm (potentially shown in Eternals). This might explain why we see Deviants coming out of the ocean in the trailer footage and possibly where they’ve been hiding out for 5,000 years until the events of the film.

I guess we’ll have to wait and see when Eternals releases on November 5.

Posted on in Film News, News

‘Eternals’: Marvel’s Nate Moore Confirms Ebony Blade & Black Knight Won’t Be Showing Up

A while back, Eternals actor Kit Harington was asked by Total Film about the future of his character Dane Whitman, who in the comic books is the Avengers member, Black Knight. He gave the impression that his character will simply be a human that gets caught-up in the Eternals adventure.

“The human character of the story. He’s not an Eternal. He’s a character who works with the Natural History Museum in London. But he’s not an Eternal – that’s the main takeaway!”

“I’ve got no idea whether my character goes on or not. I had read up on who he could be, or might be. So there’s the possibility for a longer trajectory. And hopefully, I think this is the tip of the iceberg for my character. I hope. But I just don’t know, you know? I’m as in the dark as anyone else. And I try not to live too far ahead in the future with anything. Even when I was in Game of Thrones, even on the sixth season, I presumed the seventh season wasn’t going to happen!”

This idea that the Black Knight stuff via Ebony Blade will be saved for later on is being echoed by Marvel Studios.

Longtime Marvel Studios producer Nate Moore revealed during a set visit (via Screen Rant), that Eternals won’t exactly focus on Dane Whitman becoming his superhero persona. Mentioning that the Ebony Blade (gives him his powers) and Black Knight will be something they tackle “down the road.”

“We think he’s interesting and a great character and actually Kit Harington, who just wrapped yesterday, was fantastic, but we very much explore the relationship between Dane Whitman and Sersi, which is again something for comic readers … you won’t see the Ebony Blade in this movie. He’s not going to be a Black Knight necessarily, but that is something that we get to play with down the road.”

It’s not entirely shocking that the first Eternals film is aiming to develop the relationship between Dane and Sersi, before giving him his superhero status.

The film is confirmed to have two post-credit scenes, so, we’ll be curious if those will involve some teases for Dane Whitman’s Black Knight, the Ebony Blade, or something else completely.

“A magical blade forged by Merlin and Sir Percy from the Starstone meteorite. The Ebony Blade was enchanted to cut through any object, to prevent the death of its wielder, and to deflect any magic, but it also carried a curse that would slowly corrupt any user and cause a lust for violence, bloodshed, and death.”

We’ll have to wait and see where Kit Harington’s Whitman will show up next. It’ll be interesting to see Marvel Studios finally cover a true fantasy project after sort of wading in those waters with the Thor franchise (skewed more cosmic) and elements seen in Shang-Chi.

Eternals will finally hit theatres on November 5.

ETERNALS – The immortal heroes, the Eternals, came here 7,000 years ago, since the dawn of man, to “protect humans from the Deviants.” Sersi reveals that she hasn’t seen some of the other Eternal teammates for centuries. With the monstrous creatures, the Deviants, long thought lost to history, mysteriously return, Ikaris decides that it’s time for them to “find the others” and defend humanity once again. As the epic story unfolds, Sersi and Ikaris reunite with Kingo (played by Kumail Nanjiani), Sprite (played by Lia McHugh), Gilgamesh (played by Don Lee), Thena (played by Angelina Jolie), Makkari (played by Lauren Ridloff), Phastos (played by Brian Tyree Henry), and Druig (played by Barry Keoghan).

SOURCE: SCREEN RANT

Posted on in Film News, News

‘Eternals’ Director Chloe Zhao Coyly Muses On Prospect Of Making A ‘Star Wars’ Movie

After winning the Oscar for Best Director, Chloe Zhao will be releasing her big MCU film Eternals next month and during the promotion for the new superhero flick seemingly revealed a desire to explore Star Wars.

While chatting with Empire Magazine’s Al Horner, the filmmaker was aspect about potentially making a Star Wars film after mentioning Star Wars multiple times in the interview.

“Hmmm. I have to tread very carefully with what I say here. [laughs],” the filmmaker said carefully. “Yes. Let’s just say, it’s a world I have so much reverence for because it was such an important part of my life. [laughs].”

Interestingly enough, her wording at the top of the response would suggest previous interactions with Lucasfilm. Could she have already shot something Disney+-related or taken meetings with the studio?

It wouldn’t but like she would be the first Marvel Studios alumni to tackle the Star Wars universe after folks like Jon Favreau, Peyton Reed, and Taika Waititi working on the Disney+ shows. Waititi is attached to make his own movie after Patty Jenkins’ Star Wars: Rogue Squadron and Kevin Feige is producing another pic with screenwriter Michael Waldron (Loki, Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness).

I’d personally love to see Zhao jump into the world of Star Wars, but when and where seems to be a question. There could easily be sequels to Eternals and she’s attached to make a sci-fi western Dracula film for Universal Pictures.

Zhao’s Eternals will be released next month on November 5.

ETERNALS – The immortal heroes, the Eternals, came here 7,000 years ago, since the dawn of man, to “protect humans from the Deviants.” Sersi reveals that she hasn’t seen some of the other Eternal teammates for centuries. With the monstrous creatures, the Deviants, long thought lost to history, mysteriously return, Ikaris decides that it’s time for them to “find the others” and defend humanity once again. As the epic story unfolds, Sersi and Ikaris reunite with Kingo (played by Kumail Nanjiani), Sprite (played by Lia McHugh), Gilgamesh (played by Don Lee), Thena (played by Angelina Jolie), Makkari (played by Lauren Ridloff), Phastos (played by Brian Tyree Henry), and Druig (played by Barry Keoghan).

SOURCE: EMPIRE & AL HORNER

Posted on in Film News, News

‘Eternals’: Dan Stevens All But Confirms He’s Playing Deviants Leader Kro

With Shang-Chi & The Legend of The Ten Rings released, the next big Marvel Studios project will be Eternals from Oscar-winning director Chloe Zhao (Nomandland). While we have some idea about the film there is slightly less known about The Deviants and how exactly they’ll be factoring into the film.

It’s been rumored that Legion actor Dan Stevens (The Guest, Beauty & The Beast) could be playing Kro in the film, the leader of the Deviants as the character appears in the trailer.

While speaking with Collider, Stevens seemingly confirmed the role with a cheeky response when asked if he was in Eternals.

“Kro comment…I said ‘Kro comment’ but I don’t know if that is cryptic enough.”

Dan Stevens isn’t a stranger to Marvel Comics projects as he led the X-Men series Legion that saw him play David Haller (son of Professor Charles Xavier in the comics) and would join Chris Evans as an actor previously playing a Fox era Marvel character only to join the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Evans you might remember played Johnny Storm in the Fantastic Four movies.

In the comics, Kro started out as a villain only to switch sides and join the Eternals team thanks to his romance with Angelina Jolie’s Thena. Their relationship is somewhat teased in the trailer with their brief, yet, not hostile interactions.

It wouldn’t terribly shocking if Kro and Dan Stevens took on a heroic part by the end of the film allowing him to return for multiple installments, I guess we’ll have to wait and see what Marvel plans to do with him.

ETERNALS – The immortal heroes, the Eternals, came here 7,000 years ago, since the dawn of man, to “protect humans from the Deviants.” Sersi reveals that she hasn’t seen some of the other Eternal teammates for centuries. With the monstrous creatures, the Deviants, long thought lost to history, mysteriously return, Ikaris decides that it’s time for them to “find the others” and defend humanity once again. As the epic story unfolds, Sersi and Ikaris reunite with Kingo (played by Kumail Nanjiani), Sprite (played by Lia McHugh), Gilgamesh (played by Don Lee), Thena (played by Angelina Jolie), Makkari (played by Lauren Ridloff), Phastos (played by Brian Tyree Henry), and Druig (played by Barry Keoghan).

SOURCE: COLLDIER

Posted on in Film News

‘Eternals’: Kit Harington Suggests Dane Whitman Won’t Have Powers & Isn’t Aware Of Black Knight’s Future In The MCU

Chloe Zhao’s Eternals will be introducing the god-like heroes, The Deviants, and explaining The Celestials in bigger way than previous MCU projects. She’ll also give us an odd character as well, Dane Whitman played by Game of Thrones star Kit Harington.

Dane Whitman in the comics is known as the Avengers member Black Knight, however, in the trailer he seems like a normal human without any powers to speak of.

Well, that seems to be the case according to Harington in a new interview with Total Film suggesting that he’s a “normal” human and doesn’t giving the impression he’ll have powers, rather that his relationship with Gemma Chan’s Sersi will be the focus (there have been reports of a love triangle plot).

“The human character of the story. He’s not an Eternal. He’s a character who works with the Natural History Museum in London. But he’s not an Eternal – that’s the main takeaway!”

“I’ve got no idea whether my character goes on or not. I had read up on who he could be, or might be. So there’s the possibility for a longer trajectory. And hopefully, I think this is the tip of the iceberg for my character. I hope. But I just don’t know, you know? I’m as in the dark as anyone else. And I try not to live too far ahead in the future with anything. Even when I was in Game of Thrones, even on the sixth season, I presumed the seventh season wasn’t going to happen!”

Harington could certainly be playing coy, but officially there haven’t been any announcements concerning a Black Knight series or film project being in the works. That doesn’t mean that couldn’t change in the near future.

Maybe they’ll attempt to tease Black Knight at the end of Eternals with The Ebony Blade?

A magical blade forged by Merlin and Sir Percy from the Starstone meteorite. The Ebony Blade was enchanted to cut through any object, to prevent the death of its wielder, and to deflect any magic, but it also carried a curse that would slowly corrupt any user and cause a lust for violence, bloodshed, and death.

Black Knight could allow Marvel to venture more into the world of Arthurian/Sword & Sorcery genres, a big departure for the studio as a majority of MCU projects skew in the realm of action sci-fi. Shang-Chi had one of the first examples of true fantasy with the Ta-Lo sequences.

ETERNALS – The immortal heroes, the Eternals, came here 7,000 years ago, since the dawn of man, to “protect humans from the Deviants.” Sersi reveals that she hasn’t seen some of the other Eternal teammates for centuries. With the monstrous creatures, the Deviants, long thought lost to history, mysteriously return, Ikaris decides that it’s time for them to “find the others” and defend humanity once again. As the epic story unfolds, Sersi and Ikaris reunite with Kingo (played by Kumail Nanjiani), Sprite (played by Lia McHugh), Gilgamesh (played by Don Lee), Thena (played by Angelina Jolie), Makkari (played by Lauren Ridloff), Phastos (played by Brian Tyree Henry), and Druig (played by Barry Keoghan).

SOURCE: TOTAL FILM

Posted on in Film News, News

New ‘Eternals’ Trailer Gives Us First Looks At Black Knight, Kro, New Celestials & The Deviants

Marvel Studios is getting a lot of strong buzz for their next release, Shang-Chi & The Legend of The Ten Rings, but they’re already kicking into gear the promotional campaign for Chloe Zhao’s Eternals.

The studio has just dropped a new Eternals trailer that mixes iconic Jack Kirby imagery with new takes on his character Kro along with fellow Deviants. It’s certainly visually striking and Marvel is leaning into Zhao’s recent Oscar win for Nomandland, which we all assumed would happen.

Patrick Burleigh (Power Rangers, Ant-Man & The Wasp) co-wrote the screenplay with Chloe Zhao.

Eternals is still set to be exclusively released in theaters on November 5.

The immortal heroes, the Eternals, came here 7,000 years ago, since the dawn of man, to “protect humans from the Deviants.”

Sersi reveals that she hasn’t seen some of the other Eternal teammates for centuries. With the monstrous creatures, the Deviants, long thought lost to history, mysteriously return, Ikaris decides that it’s time for them to “find the others” and defend humanity once again.

As the epic story unfolds, Sersi and Ikaris reunite with Kingo (played by Kumail Nanjiani), Sprite (played by Lia McHugh), Gilgamesh (played by Don Lee), Thena (played by Angelina Jolie), Makkari (played by Lauren Ridloff), Phastos (played by Brian Tyree Henry), and Druig (played by Barry Keoghan).

Chloé Zhao directs the film, and Kevin Feige and Nate Moore are the producers, with Louis D’Esposito, Victoria Alonso and Kevin de la Noy serving as executive producers. The story is by Ryan Firpo & Matthew K. Firpo, and the screenplay is by Chloé Zhao & Patrick Burleigh.

SOURCE: MARVEL

Posted on in Trailers

Marvel Releases First Teaser Trailer For Chloe Zhao’s ‘Eternals’

This morning Marvel Studios has unleashed the first teaser trailer for their next budding franchise, Eternals. The newest film in Phase 4 is going focus on a group of cosmic beings created by comic book powerhouse creative and artist Jack Kirby, who are tasked by the Celestials to protect Earth from The Deviants and are endowed with god-like superpowers/longevity.

The first footage was teased not too long ago but with the teaser we finally have a better sense of the world created by director/co-writer Chloe Zhao, who recently won Best Picture and Best Director for the movie Nomadland. It’s use of a exterior locations and practical sets seems to be something fresh but we’ll have to wait a little longer to see the foes, The Deviants it seems.

Eternals originally was supposed to be released in November of last year but was bumped to November 5, 2021 due to the pandemic and multiple other MCU films shifting their spots on the Disney schedule.

You can watch the new footage below.

The cast of Eternals consists of Gemma Chan as Sersi, Kit Harington as Dane Whitman aka Black Knight, Barry Keoghan as Druig, Richard Madden as Ikaris, Angelina Jolie as Thena, Lauren Ridloff as Makkari, Brian Tyree Henry as Phastos, Kumail Nanjani as Kingo, Salma Hayek as Ajak, Lia McHugh as Sprite, Don Lee as Gilgamesh, and Jashaun St. John in an undisclosed role.

Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige has stated previously that Chan’s Sersi is the film’s lead which makes sense as there has been talk of a love triangle between her, Madden’s Ikaris and Harington’s Dane Whtiman aka Black Knight.

Despite being protectors of Earth it seems odd that they would have only now revealed themselves given past events like the Battle for New York and Thanos. Interestingly enough, Thanos’ father and brother happen to Eternals from the planet Titan and could have ties to the new superhero team or at least have their connections explored at some point. The film could also help introduce other Marvel elements such as the sinking of Namor’s Atlantis via The Great Cataclysm and having the Celestials behind the mutant gene being added to early humans that will later lead to the X-Men/Mutants.

Zeus and The Olympians are also going to be introduced in Thor: Love & Thunder, according to Oscar-winner Russell Crowe, revealing he’ll be playing Zeus in the film as production is still taking place in Australia. The Olympians and Eternals have had conflict in the comics and we could see the two MCU cosmic teams go head-to-head in sequels.

I wouldn’t be shocked if the studio has already spoken with Zhao about overseeing multiple films and securing her involvement as the filmmaker originally pitched the project to them after losing out on the Black Widow directing gig to Cate Shortland. Zhao could end up being the next James Gunn for the new Marvel franchise.

Marvel also dropped this lovely teaser poster.

SOURCE: MARVEL

Posted on in Film News

‘Eternals’: Marvel Reveals First Footage From The Superhero Flick Directed By Oscar-Winner Chloe Zhao

In a video honoring the legacy of Stan Lee and the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Marvel Studios has unleashed the first-look footage from Chloe Zhao’s Eternals film coming out November 5, 2021.

The cast includes Gemma Chan as Sersi, Kit Harington as Dane Whitman aka Black Knight, Barry Keoghan as Druig, Richard Madden as Ikaris, Angelina Jolie as Thena, Lauren Ridloff as Makkari, Brian Tyree Henry as Phastos, Kumail Nanjani as Kingo, Salma Hayek as Ajak, Lia McHugh as Sprite, and Don Lee as Gilgamesh. Along with Jashaun St. John in a mystery role.

Sersi is said to be the main character along with talk that Chloe used a lot of practical effects and sets.

Posted on in Film News

‘Eternals’: Chloe Zhao Reunites With ‘Songs My Brother Taught Me’ Actress Jashaun St. John – Will Appear In Upcoming Marvel Movie

A new casting tidbit for the Marvel Studios film directed and co-written by Oscar-winner Chloe Zhao has been revealed. An article from that L.A. Times has mentioned that actress Jashaun St. John, who starred in Zhao’s film Songs My Brother Taught Me has been given an undisclosed part in Eternals.

Reaffirming that vote of confidence, Zhao cast St. John again in her upcoming Marvel superhero saga “Eternals,” scheduled to be released on Nov. 5.

Word on the street is that there are plenty of actors that are in Eternals that haven’t been announced outside of the main cast and I’m super curious if they’re indeed big names or other actors Zhao was worked with previously.

The rest of the cast includes Gemma Chan as Sersi, Kit Harington as Dane Whitman aka Black Knight, Barry Keoghan as Druig, Richard Madden as Ikaris, Angelina Jolie as Thena, Lauren Ridloff as Makkari, Brian Tyree Henry as Phastos, Kumail Nanjani as Kingo, Salma Hayek as Ajak, Lia McHugh as Sprite, and Don Lee as Gilgamesh.  

I’ll be keeping my fingers-crossed that Marvel will be able convince Zhao to stick around for a trilogy of movies given that she had approached the studio with the idea of tackling the Jack Kirby characters after meeting with them to direct Black Widow. She very well could end up becoming the architect of the franchise, not unlike James Gunn with Guardians of The Galaxy.

Eternals is set for release on November 5, 2021.

SOURCE: THE LOS ANGELES TIMES