18 Burning Questions I Have After Watching Marvel's New "Eternals" Movie

Have the Eternals ever met Thor?? Just sayin.

🚨 Be warned: there are spoilers ahead for the Eternals movie, obvs. 🚨

Hiya, HUGE Marvel fan here! Today I'm gonna be addressing the latest MCU release, Eternals, which I’ve been looking forward to for ages!

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If you don't already know, Eternals follows a group of powerful immortal aliens who have been living among humanity for 7,000 years protecting them from "Deviants".

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The blockbuster is directed by Chloé Zhao, and stars an incredible ensemble cast including the likes of Angelina Jolie, Gemma Chan, Richard Madden, Kumail Nanjiani, and Salma Hayek.

The movie has so far had pretty mixed reviews, but as a person who sees EVERY Marvel movie as soon as it drops, I had to check it out for myself. Here are 18 questions I was left with after seeing the film:

1. What actually are the Eternals?

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We learn that an ancient Celestial being named Arishem created the Eternals, but what exactly are they?! Are they distant cousins of humanity, sentient robots, or just another kind of alien? At the end of the film, Thena, Makkari, and Druig are on their way to find more Eternals, so hopefully the group's background will be explored when they return in a future movie.

2. How do the Eternals know where to find each other?

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When the Eternals decide to find each other in the movie, Sersi mentions that she hasn't seen some of the others in centuries. Ikaris says he came to check on her, but he never explains how he knew where she was. Kingo was the easiest to find due to his Bollywood career, but Druig's Amazon village was hidden away and Phastos specifically opted for a quiet suburban life to get away from the rest of the Eternals. Did prime Eternal Ajak tell Sersi and Ikaris where the others were, or have they generally kept track of each other over the years?

3. Why was Sprite built differently from the other Eternals?

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It's brought up A LOT that Sprite has a much more youthful appearance than the others. Gilgamesh makes fun of her for it at length, but it's never explained why she looks that way. Her appearance doesn't seem to link with her abilities in any way. After the revelation that the Eternals were created not born, it follows that Arishem must have purposely chosen to create a childlike Eternal despite everyone else being adult, but why?

4. When it comes to the Eternals inspiring well-known myths such as the fall of Icarus, what's real and what isn't?

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Interestingly, the movie mentions that several famous myths and legendary figures are based on the Eternals themselves. Gilgamesh inspired the ancient Mesopotamian hero of the same name, and Thena is supposedly the goddess of war from Greek mythology. However, when Dane asks Sersi if Ikaris is the man who flew too close to the sun, she explains that Sprite made that story up. Which myths are actually based in reality, and which are simply made up?

5. Have the Eternals met any of the other gods?

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We know that humanity has conflated Thena with the Greek goddess Athena, so does that mean she knows the other Greek gods? Kingo, too, mentions how Thor used to follow him around as a kid but now won't return his calls. If Kingo knew Thor, has he also travelled to the Nine Realms and met the inhabitants there? With Thor: Love and Thunder set to introduce the Greek god Zeus to the MCU, it remains to be seen whether the Eternals connection to the Greek pantheon will be explored further.

6. Were the Eternals supposed to stay out of human affairs or not?

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This whole issue is very vague and contradictory! The Eternals were told not to interfere with human conflicts unless Deviants are involved, but they were also left on Earth to chill and wait for further instructions for AGES, which meant they had no choice but to go out and build lives for themselves. Also, the Eternals lived alongside humans in Babylon for years and openly used their powers around them, which Arishem and Ajak didn't seem have an issue with.

7. Why were Deviants even created in the first place?

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We learn that Arishem created the Deviants to protect humanity, but he swiftly abandoned them when they decided to eat people instead. Later, he created the Eternals to protect humans and kill Deviants, but why didn't he destroy them himself? Better still, why create them at all? The Deviants of Earth were seemingly all killed in the movie (again), but they probably exist on other planets, meaning there's a chance we could see them again!

8. Why didn't Kro team up with the Eternals?

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It's true that the Deviants and the Eternals have a common enemy in the Celestials – the order of beings that Arishem belongs to – who have manipulated them all. Why, then, didn't the power-absorbing Deviant Kro team up with Eternals against the Celestials after he learned about the Celestials' plan? After all, these two opposing forces had a common goal of preventing the emergence of Tiamut.

The answer is probably that he was focused on revenge because the Eternals were trying to kill him, and they are easier to find and destroy than the Celestials. In future, maybe other Deviants will take their fight directly to Arishem?

9. Why does Mahd Wy'ry drive Thena to kill everyone?

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Throughout the movie, Thena is dealing with some major PTSD known as "Mahd Wy'ry". Her mind is constantly surfacing painful memories of planets she and the Eternals helped inadvertently destroy, but why does that make her want to kill her colleagues? Perhaps her condition makes her forget who is an ally and who is an enemy, but remembering destroyed planets seems to me like it would make her more sad than murderous.

10. Is Ikaris dead?

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In the film, Ikaris poetically flies into the sun after realising that he can't kill his ex-girlfriend, and doesn't want to kill his fellow Eternals. However, considering that Eternals can only be killed by Deviants and are otherwise, well, eternal, there's a chance that his attempt at suicide didn't work, meaning he could return.

11. And is Tiamut also dead?

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Sersi taps into Tiamut's own power to utilise the Uni-Mind and transform the emerging Celestial into some kind of stone, but since Tiamut had already spent millennia dormant inside the Earth, did the transformation kill him or just make him dormant again?

12. Does Sprite still have her powers?

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Sprite got her wish to grow up and live as a real human, but will she still have her powers? Sersi only just made the discovery that she can transmute living beings after thousand of years of existence, so there's no way of knowing exactly how Sprite was changed, or if it even worked.

13. Where did Arishem take the remaining Eternals?

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At the end of the movie, Sersi, Phastos, Kingo, and Sprite remain on Earth after preventing Tiamut's emergence, but the first three are soon abducted by Arishem who says he will use their memories to judge whether Earth was worth saving. Where is he taking them for this judgement though, and will he wipe their memories again?

14. Will Galactus ever turn up?

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Fans of the comics will have noticed that Arishem bears a resemblance to Galactus – the giant world-eating being – to the point that many thought he'd actually appear in the movie! Even though he was nowhere to be seen, Galactus is directly linked to the Celestials in the comics. This means he could turn up in the movies soon, especially now that some of the Eternals have turned against their creator's plan.

15. Who was Dane talking to?

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At the end of Eternals, Dane makes a cryptic reference to his complicated family history" which is explored further in one of the post-credits scenes. Dane nervously paces before opening a box containing a sword wrapped in bandages. He reads the inscription carved into the lid and translates it out loud – "death is my reward". Then he says, "I'm sorry, I have to try", but who is he talking to when he says that? Is he apologising to himself for risking death to touch the sword, or is he communicating with his mysterious ancestors?

Whatever the case, Dane's family history wouldn't have been referenced if it wasn't going to be explored in the future, so I think we can expect this storyline play out some time in the MCU. 

16. And more to the point, who spoke to Dane?

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This end credits scene was leaked before the film's release, and many fans started to theorise that the voice who says to Dane, "Are you sure you're ready for that, Mr Whitman?", was Doctor Strange. However, director Chloe Zhao has since confirmed that it was in fact Blade. This makes sense when you dive into the comics history – Dane once fought with Dracula as The Black Knight, and Blade is famed for vampire hunting, so the two may even team up in a future film!

17. What's the deal with Eros? (Also, Harry Styles?!)

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Rumours of Harry playing Eros in a Marvel movie have been swirling for ages, but I didn't expect him to turn up so soon! The confusing thing is, Eros introduced himself as the brother of Thanos and also called the others his "fellow Eternals" – how can he be both? The Eternals were created and not born, so how can an Eternal have a brother and how can Eros or Thanos be one of them when Thanos was from the planet Titan?

Eros may be an Eternal in title only, and he wasn't actually created by Arishem, or maybe Arishem lied to Sersi about parts of the Eternals' origins. I guess we'll have to wait and see!

18. And finally, how come no one once said "Eternals Assemble"???

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Just kidding, this doesn't really matter! In one trailer, Ikaris says "Eternals Assemble" in reference both to the Avengers and the Eternals finally reuniting after centuries apart, but the line doesn't appear in the film. It's probably for the best though, since a lot of people found it cheesy AF.

I gotta say, overall I really enjoyed the movie. The two hours 37 minutes run-time was worth it to introduce all these new characters and give us reasons to love them. I'm also glad that infamous Angelina Jolie CGI shot from the trailer was better in the film!

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Who cares about the Rotten Tomatoes score I came here for Angelina Jolie being badass #Eternals

12:29 AM - 28 Oct 2021

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What did YOU think of Eternals? Let us know in the comments!