Eternals might be the most impactful MCU movie since Avengers: Endgame. Chloe Zhao’s millennia-spanning tale will reveal the prehistory of humanity and introduce us to powerful new heroes destined to play a major role in future conflicts. Expectations are high, particularly after Kevin Feige revealed that Zhao’s pitch was among the best he’s ever heard.
But one of the biggest questions the movie needs to answer is why the Eternals haven’t intervened in any of the crises already faced by the MCU’s Earth. You could chalk up some of it to their philosophy of letting mankind make its own mistakes, but you’d think they’d at least step in when Thanos – who’s linked to the Eternals – is out to destroy half of all life in the universe.
Now a new TV spot has dropped a direct reference to the big fight they didn’t show up for. Here we see Richard Madden’s Ikaris utter their take on Steve Rogers’ “Avengers assemble” line in Endgame, going for a downbeat and sarcastic “Eternals, assemble”.
My take is that he’s not necessarily mocking Rogers, but instead hinting that the Eternals aren’t quite the majestic force they’re supposed to be. I guess we’ll know for sure when we see the full movie.
Previous trailers have also seen Ikaris jokingly putting himself forward as the new leader of the Avengers in the wake of Iron Man’s death and Steve Rogers’ retirement. But let’s face it, if an insanely powerful dude showed up at Avengers HQ and said he’d been on Earth since the Stone Age, he’d be justifiably met with a “where the hell were you when we needed you?!”
With TV spots now landing we’ll see more of Eternals before its November 5th release, so keep an eye out for new clues as to the story and how it fits into the MCU.
