A country singer from the ’80s got it right when he sang that everybody needs a hero. Children and adults, black and white, we all need someone to look up to. More and more, Marvel seems to be recognizing this, as the upcoming flick The Eternals will finally give the hearing impaired the hero they deserve in the form of Makkari, the MCU’s first superhero to be played by a deaf actress.
Fresh from the SDCC, this is the kind of news that just makes you feel good. Over the weekend, Marvel and Tessa Thompson let it loose that Valkyrie will be the first LGBTQ hero in an MCU film in Thor: Love and Thunder. Now, another way too often overlooked portion of our population will finally get some representation in Hollywood, as Lauren Ridloff, an aspiring deaf actress, will take on the role of the aforementioned Makkari.
If you’re a fan of superheroes and zombies, you’ll recognize Ridloff as the badass Connie from The Walking Dead. She’s also the former Miss Deaf America and a stage actor, earning a Tony nomination for her performance in the 2018 Broadway play, Children of a Lesser God.
As for her character Makkari, he (yep, he) was originally a male Eternal, who, among other things, once taught Elvis a few tricks on the guitar. He started out with typical powers of the Eternals but despite that, he became obsessed with his speed, concentrating all his power on that one ability.
It’ll be great to see Ridloff take on this role and make it her own as well as she has with Connie in TWD. We don’t know too much about the film just yet, but with The Eternals set to hit theaters on November 6th, 2020, we should start hearing a lot more about it in no time at all, so stay tuned.
