The Eternals may finally be included in another Marvel Cinematic Universe movie, nearly five years after the immortal beings made their debut in the shared universe.
Directed by Chloé Zhao — who may be in line for the next Mission: Impossible — Eternals focuses on the titular immortal beings as they emerge from hiding after thousands of years to protect Earth from their ancient counterparts, the Deviants.
The 2021 superhero movie, released during Phase 4 of the MCU, ended with quite the cliffhanger. Sersi (Gemma Chan), Phastos (Brian Tyree Henry), and Kingo (Nanjiani) were taken by the Celestial Arishem into a singularity, vowing judgment if the Eternals’ memories did not show that humans were worthy of living.
Where will the Eternals appear next in the MCU?
With a sequel to Eternals yet to materialize, the next appearance of the Eternals will reportedly be in Avengers: Secret Wars, at least according to scooper James Mack. In a recent X post, Mack revealed that he had been told that “there’s one character from the Eternals in the current plans” for Secret Wars.
Unfortunately, Mack did not reveal the Eternal that Secret Wars might include. While the 2021 movie did kill off a few members of the team, since Secret Wars is a Multiverse movie, the door is open for any of them to return as variants.
So far, none of the Eternals have reappeared in a live-action MCU project. A zombified Ikaris made a silent cameo in the first episode of the animated Marvel Zombies series, while Nanjiani reprised his role as Kingo in an episode of What If…? Season 3. However, neither of those shows takes place on the MCU’s sacred timeline.
An Eternal appearing in Secret Wars proves that Marvel Studios isn’t ready to give up on the characters in the MCU just yet. Still, fans will likely be disappointed that their next appearance doesn’t seem likely to offer any conclusion to the 2021 movie’s cliffhanger ending.
Eternals, Marvel Zombies, and What If…? are available to stream on Disney+.
