Marvel fans need to see this ‘Eternals’ revelation

Chris Smith
·7 min read
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Now that Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is out in theaters, we’re getting ready for Eternals, Marvel’s most ambitious MCU movie of the year. The new team of superheroes would have probably received even more attention from fans, but the big Spider-Man: No Way Home spoilers turned the new Spider-Man film into the most talked-about superhero movie of the year. The Eternals deserve a lot more recognition, as they’re the kind of heroes the Avengers could use. We already know why the Eternals haven’t helped the Avengers so far and why they had to observe humanity from the shadows. That all changes with the upcoming movie, and some of the Eternals might end up joining the Avengers in future crossover movies.

There’s even talk of one particular Eternal possibly leading the Avengers in the future now that Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) and Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) are out of the picture. It’s the one who hilariously proposed himself as a potential leader in the first trailer. The actor playing him already provided a spoiler-free answer when asked whether he could be one of the new faces of the Avengers. But we think we know the truth. Beware, huge spoilers follow below.

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Even the Eternals wonder who will lead the Avengers

The screenshot above comes from the first trailer. Several Eternals sit around the table, eating and talking. From left to right, we have Sprite (Lia McHugh), Ikaris (Richard Madden), Thena (Angelina Jolie), Kingo (Kumail Nanjiani), Gilgamesh (Don Lee), King’s valet (Harish Patel), and Sersi (Gemma Chan).

It’s Sprite asking who will lead the Avengers now that Iron Man and Captain Rogers are gone. “I could lead them,” Richard Madden’s character answers nonchalantly. Everyone else starts laughing as soon as he proposes himself as the new Avengers leader.

The second trailer provides the first answers to our biggest questions about the Eternals mission on Earth. We find out that they were never meant to intervene on the planet unless they had to fight the Deviants. But that’s changing. The Eternals want to save humanity from the imminent threat coming in the wake of Endgame.

In other words, the Eternals will come out of the shadows, and they could fight alongside the Avengers in the future.

<img loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-5945847" src="https://bgr.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/eternals-final-trailer-1-1.jpg?quality=70&strip=all&quot; alt="Ajak (Salma Hayek) and Ikaris (Richard Madden) in Eternals final trailer. - Credit: Marvel Studios" width="768" height="322" srcset="https://bgr.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/eternals-final-trailer-1-1.jpg 1600w, https://bgr.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/eternals-final-trailer-1-1.jpg?resize=150,63 150w, https://bgr.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/eternals-final-trailer-1-1.jpg?resize=300,126 300w, https://bgr.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/eternals-final-trailer-1-1.jpg?resize=768,322 768w, https://bgr.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/eternals-final-trailer-1-1.jpg?resize=1024,429 1024w, https://bgr.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/eternals-final-trailer-1-1.jpg?resize=1536,644 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px" />Marvel Studios

Marvel actors answer the Avengers leadership question

A few days ago, we saw Doctor Strange actor Benedict Cumberbatch answer a question about the future Avengers leadership. Asked whether he could replace Iron Man, Cumberbatch said he needs to think about that one, coyly hinting that might be in the works. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is one of the most exciting MCU Phase 4 movies, given what the leaks say. And it’s another chance after Infinity War and Endgame for Strange to establish himself as a prominent member of the Avengers.

Not to mention that some of the older rumors named the Sorcerer Supreme as a potential face of the Avengers after Endgame.

Madden answered a similar question that Total Film asked after that first trailer. The magazine will publish a cover story on the upcoming MCU ensemble film in the October edition. But the article already leaked on Twitter, as seen above.

“I don’t know,” he said. “I know that he’s a good leader and a good soldier. If those are two traits you need to lead the Avengers, then he has them. But I wouldn’t be able to predict that.” We wouldn’t expect Madden to spoil any secrets. The former Game of Thrones star knows better than that.

Later in the piece, Madden jokes that the Marvel snipers will take him out if he says anything about returning to the MCU after Eternals. So even if he knew whether an Eternal could lead the Avengers, he wouldn’t reveal that secret.

This is the point where I’ll remind you about those massive Eternals spoilers that I mentioned before. Here they come…

<img loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-5946429" src="https://bgr.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/spider-man-no-way-home-trailer-doctor-strange.jpg?quality=70&strip=all&quot; alt="Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) holding a coffee cup that reads “For Fox Sake” in No Way Home trailer. - Credit: Sony and Marvel" width="768" height="482" srcset="https://bgr.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/spider-man-no-way-home-trailer-doctor-strange.jpg 1600w, https://bgr.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/spider-man-no-way-home-trailer-doctor-strange.jpg?resize=150,94 150w, https://bgr.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/spider-man-no-way-home-trailer-doctor-strange.jpg?resize=300,188 300w, https://bgr.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/spider-man-no-way-home-trailer-doctor-strange.jpg?resize=768,482 768w, https://bgr.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/spider-man-no-way-home-trailer-doctor-strange.jpg?resize=1024,643 1024w, https://bgr.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/spider-man-no-way-home-trailer-doctor-strange.jpg?resize=1536,964 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px" />Sony and Marvel

The big Eternals plot leak gives us the real answer

As soon as the second Eternals trailer dropped, we were able to confirm the accuracy of a massive Eternals plot leak that had appeared earlier. Marvel’s trailers should be confusing, as the studio often tries to mislead fans. But the scenes we saw in these trailers align with revelations in that big spoiler. And that plot leak seems to provide the obvious answer to the question of whether Ikaris can lead the Avengers.

Yes, he’s extremely powerful and an Eternals leader. He’s second in command behind Ajak (Salma Hayek), and we’ll see that in the film. But he’s also one of the film’s big surprises. He’s not going to be as pure of heart as you think. Ikaris kills Ajak, as the latter wants to oppose the Celestials, the film’s real villains.

Ikaris is aware of the Celestial’s big plan, just like Ajak. All the energy on planets like Earth feeds a Celestial egg hidden inside the planet, growing for millennia. When the new Celestial is ready to emerge, it will eventually destroy the entire world. Ajak and most of the Eternals will want to stop that plan, opposing their creators. Ikaris will fight his Eternals family, siding with the Celestials.

In other words, Ikaris is not the right call for leading the Avengers right now. Not this variant, at least. And not if this Eternals plot leak is accurate. The super-powered being who sees no problem destroying the planet and race he’s supposed to defend can’t lead the planet’s last line of defense.

One more thing about the Eternals crew

The same Total Film article offers another reason why Ikaris can’t really be an Avengers leader. While Eternals is an ensemble movie, it’s Sersi who might be considered the lead. That comes right from Kevin Feige, it’s not an unconfirmed leak. If anyone would join the Avengers in any capacity, it would probably be the leader of Eternals.

Eternals premiers in theaters on November 5th, and it will start streaming on Disney Plus before the end of the year.

See the original version of this article on BGR.com