In ETERNALS, a new group of superheroes joins the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Earth’s great protectors. These beings from beyond the stars are sent to defend humanity from Deviants, monstrous creatures which feed on just about anything… including people. The scattered Eternals must reconnect in order to preserve humanity.
We spoke to Oscar-winning director Chloe Zhao, whose previous movies such as NOMADLAND and THE RIDER are quite different from Marvel's efforts. Zhao said she wanted this movie to serve as a love letter to planet Earth.
"I love the idea of going to these locations and capturing this real beauty of our planet," Zhao said. "We have to be reminded how beautiful it is and how much it has taken care of us throughout history."
ETERNALS follows the events of 2019’s AVENGERS ENDGAME, which saw the world’s population restored after the Snap, the attack by Thanos which wiped out half of all beings in existence.
"For me, the Snap [and] the Blip, to bring back half the universe's population, half this planet's population, that’s a big ecological event," Zhao said.
“I think in the post-Infinity Saga MCU films, we’ve touched on those things here and there, but we really wanted to talk about what the big ramification of that is. Because that’s half of the population — that does a lot to this planet. And I think there’s a metaphor of that in this film, so having that to be such an interesting setup, once you know that, you can watch this movie without knowing the other things about the MCU."
Watch our full interview with ETERNALS director Chloe Zhao below:
ETERNALS opens on November 5!
All images courtesy of Marvel Studios.