Avengers: Endgame has officially brought a 22 film story arc — dubbed the Infinity Saga — to a close. July will see the release of Spider-Man: Far From Home, which will serve as an epilogue of phase three of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Now, it’s time for us to look ahead and anticipate all new films that will serve to introduce brand new Marvel comics characters.
One title that’s currently in active development over at Marvel Studios is The Eternals. In the comics, The Eternals are superpowered beings created by the Celestials to protect life on earth. Think of it as Marvel’s version of DC’s New Gods. The film is set to be directed by Chloe Zhao, whose first two independent features, Songs My Brothers Taught Me and The Rider received widespread critical acclaim. Over the past couple of months, Marvel successfully signed Angelina Jolie, Kumail Najiani (The Big Sick) and Ma Dong-Seok (Train to Busan) to be a part of the film’s ensemble cast. And now, we’ve got another major update.
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Variety reports that Richard Madden, who played Robb Stark in Game of Thrones is currently in talks to join the picture. He reportedly will play Ikaris, who was born over 20 000 years ago to two Polar Eternals. And if your immediate thought is “holy cow! That sounds crazy,” you’re in luck, cause it’s about to get crazier. At the time of the Great Cataclysm, Ikaris guided an ark carrying human survivors and animals to safety. Looks like the MCU is going full cosmic with this one.
But unlike Guardians of the Galaxy and Thor: Ragnarok which has a more playful tone, this feels like it could be a high-fantasy-drama EPIC and am thoroughly intrigued by it. The screenplay is penned by Matthew and Ryan Firpo, who previously wrote a bunch of short films and short documentaries. It’s certainly going to be interesting to see what the duo could bring to the table alongside Chloe Zhao.
