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With Spider-Man: Far From Home out in cinemas now, it has a lot of people wondering, what is next for the MCU? To the general viewer, the story is over with stand-alone projects here and there. To the fans of the MCU, they have many ideas as to where they can go after the events of Endgame and the post-credit scenes in Spider-Man: Far From Home. As of now though, Marvel has not officially announced anything down the pipeline, though that could change with Marvel coming back to SDCC this year after taking a year off. That does not mean that they do not have anything in development thought. A plethora of Disney+ shows a being developed along with a stand-alone Black Widow movie that serves a prologue. Another title that has massive potential that Marvel is currently developing right now is The Eternals! Just like the Guardians of the Galaxy before the MCU, the Eternals are a lesser-known group that only comic readers are aware of. They are very very very important to the Marvel universe, so today, I am here to give you a break down of who they are, where they fit in the MCU and some reading recommendations in case you want to get a head start!

Who are the Eternals– The legendary Jack Kirby created the Eternals after he left DC comics in the early 1970s. The Eternals first issue was in July of 1976 and later reckoned for modern times by Neil Gaiman in the early 2000s. The story reads a lot like Marvel’s version of the New Gods from DC as Kirby left from DC after creating those characters. In the comics, the Eternals were created by the celestials, specifically the celestial Gammenon the Gatherer. Gammenon created the celestials by doing experiments on archival humans, billions of years ago. These experiments resulted in two main groups, the Eternals (meaning eternal life) and the Deviants (expecting deviant from the main). After the celestials created them, they set them out to pretty much do their own thing. Most famously, two factions of them live on Saturn’s moon called Titan.

While the Eternals are a race of people, the movie is most likely to focus on the main characters from the books. The main Eternals that the books usually follow is Icarus, Mercari, Cersei, Thena, and Gilgamesh, with a couple every here and there, like Starfox (who happens to be Thanos brother). What is so cool about each of these characters is that they are slightly named after famous god-like figures in the Marvel universe. While they are not gods, a lot of the Marvel history views them as such (Marvel has there own version of the Greek, Roman and other gods). Their powers each vary from person to person, but they are near god-level beings with each one possessing the usually super strength, flight, super intelligence, et cetera!

The one standout feature is that they cannot die, as they are eternal (hence the name was given to them). Each of the leading members has some special powers. Like Icarus being able to shoot stable lasers out of his eyes and Cersei being able to shapeshift matter into what she sees fit.

Where do they fit in the MCU? This question is really up to what viewers want. While we know the celestials exist due to Guardians of the Galaxy, the Eternals can kind of fit anywhere. If I were developing the movie, I would make them there own offshoot and not bring them into the larger universe until whatever next big world-ending threat occurs. I think they also serve as a great way to slightly introduce X -Men. That sounds crazy and a long shot, but it is just a thought. My big guess is for right now, the Eternals will serve as the new Guardians project, meaning that they will have relatively little action until big things start popping off.

In the comics, there is a significant crossover with Thor involving their version of a Civil War, so it would be helpful to them to that or build up to that. I think that the movie will involve some of the characters main traits though, as Cersei is known to live among the humans and ends up having massive amounts of money due to her long life, and the ability to shift her appearance into whoever she wants. It would be an excellent way to have some of the stories take place on earth, but if not, they can always have everything take place on Titan! In the future, they will play an integral part of whatever story as they are super durable and Icarus alone is on par with Thor and the Hulk. They also can be a great gateway if the MCU goes the route as posing the celestials as villains and making someone such as Eson- the Destroyer come to Earth! All in all, it is really up to what future storyline they would like to do, but there are many options!

Good reading recommendations- Here is a list of Tittles to check out if you want to read more about them! Eternals (vol. 1) #1–19 (written and penciled by Jack Kirby, July 1976 – Jan. 1978) The New Eternals: Apocalypse Now (also known as Eternals: The New Breed) #1 (Feb. 2000) Eternals (vol. 3) #1–7 (written by Neil Gaiman, limited series, Jun. 2006 – Feb. 2007) Eternals (vol 4.) #1–9, Annual #1 (August 2008 – March 2009)

What do you think? How do you think they will fit into the MCU? For all things Cinema related, you are in the right place! -@Indianparker

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