How do you place collectively an MCU film that stretches from 1000’s of years previously to the present-day with an ensemble forged of various, distinctive heroes which have by no means earlier than been seen on-screen?
That’s the duty entrusted to Eternals director Chloe Zhao, who has hinted that she has huge, bold plans for the Marvel Section 4 film – even surpassing the scope of Avengers: Endgame.
“How a lot additional and larger can we go after [Avengers:] Endgame?” requested Zhao throughout a THR interview, earlier than including. “As a result of I’m not simply making the movie as a director. I’m making the movie as a fan.”
It’s exhausting not to think about millennia-old immortal heroes with the ability to outdo a few of what we noticed in Avengers: Endgame by way of huge set-pieces and particular results. For Zhao, although, her filming course of remained surprisingly much like her different work, which incorporates critically acclaimed movie The Rider and the upcoming Nomandland.
“I shot precisely the best way I needed to shoot. On location. A whole lot of magic hour… Similar rigs. It’s a bit surreal,” she mentioned of filming Eternals, which is due out on February 12, 2021. “I’m nonetheless ready for the shoe to drop. It hasn’t. I believe I bought fortunate in that Marvel desires to take dangers and do one thing totally different.”
Whereas the comparisons to Endgame will undoubtedly increase eyebrows, it’s the r-word – threat – that ought to maybe be most necessary.
The MCU excels when it’s promoting a singular, creator-led imaginative and prescient (assume Black Panther and Thor: Ragnarok) – and, if Zhao’s phrases ring true, Eternals might be out of this world.