Marvel Studios is basically churning out money at this point. Each film seems to only outdo the last film and while Ant-Man and the Wasp may slow some of the momentum down, Captain Marvel is only going to pick it up when it releases in the first quarter of 2018. Given the need for new content and fresh ideas, Marvel Studios is reaching deep into their incredible collection of superheroes by hiring a pair of writers to pen a script for The Eternals, per The Hollywood Reporter. While casual moviegoers won’t be familiar with The Eternals, longtime readers of Marvel will know that the Eternals represent the building blocks for all that we have seen thus far in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Marvel Studios have hired writers Matthew and Ryan Firpo, whose spec script Ruin was at the top of the 2017 Black List. Per Heroic Hollywood, Kevin Feige has already confirmed the Jack Kirby creation and Marvel Studios will be looking to launch the franchise following Guardians of the Galaxy 3. Kirby created The Eternals during his 1970’s cosmic push and they have existed behind the scenes of the modern Marvel world. Even still, The Eternals and their story represent a huge portion of Marvel’s past and could offer Marvel Studios the chance to create an epic viewers can follow without needing much background as the story tells itself.
The Eternals are a race of superheroes created by the Celestials. The MCU at-large has already introduced the concept of Celestials first in Guardians of the Galaxy and then more deeply in Guardians of the Galaxy 2. Created by Celestials over a million years ago, these early humanoids possess the ability to lives much, much longer lives than later humans, but also possessed different powers through the Power Cosmic. Every protagonist needs a good antagonist and thus the Celestials created another race called The Deviants. The Deviants wish to destroy Earth, naturally, and the Eternals have made it their life’s work to stop them from doing so.
A civil war within the Eternals happened due to disagreements on whether or not to conquer other races and planets. The two leaders in this civil war were Kronos and his brother Uranos. The results saw Uranos banished to a planet viewers may have head of, Titan, after a Kree warship attacked them following their exile. Of course, the Kree, the Deviants, the Eternals, the Celestials, and eventually Thanos are all tied up in this story at some point. While Thanos will likely have nothing to do with the story, this offers Marvel Studios the wonderful opportunity to tell tales that happened long before Thanos was even a twinkle in his father’s eye. What could more awesome than a story of how the modern Marvel Universe was created?