Marvel Star Breaks Silence on 'Eternals' Failure: "It Shattered Me Too Much"
Chloé Zhao’s superhero flick was believed to start a completely new and successful Marvel phase, and it’s not only fans that hoped to see more of Eternals in the next several years.
Things haven’t been the same for Marvel since Avengers: Endgame seemingly wrapped the studio’s most exciting franchise back in 2019, so we might not get a billion-worthy superhero blockbuster until Avengers: Doomsday hits the screens worldwide next year.
Despite Marvel introducing more and more new narratives after Endgame’s release, nearly all of them failed miserably, including Eternals helmed by Nomadland’s Chloé Zhao.
Having also introduced a bunch of new characters, the studio has now doomed them staying within the frame of just one movie — which, according to one of Eternals’ leads, wasn’t really the plan.
What Did Kumail Nanjiani Say About ‘Eternals’ Failure?
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The actor, who portrayed popular Bollywood film star Kingo in the film, has recently reflected on Eternals bombing in the box office four years ago, seemingly implying that the physical transformation Nanjiani went through wasn’t really worth the shot.
“It came out, it got really bad reviews, and it didn’t do that well. It shattered me too much. That’s when I was like, ‘Oh, I need to go to therapy to figure this out”, the actor revealed during his appearance on the Working It Out podcast.
Apart from that, Nanjiani also added that, like any other actor signing up for an MCU role, he thought this was going to be his career focus for the next decade, considering that Marvel doesn’t usually give up its new stories right after the first movie.
“I was like, ‘This is going to be my job for the next ten years.’ I signed on for six movies. I signed on for a video game. I signed on for a theme park ride. They make you sign on for all this stuff”, he added.
Why Did ‘Eternals’ Fail?
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- On Rotten Tomatoes, Eternals holds scores of 47% and 77% from critics and audiences
- On IMDb, the movie is rated 6.2/10
With a leading cast that probably was a bit too star-studded, Eternals wasn’t saved neither by Zhao’s name nor by its main actors, becoming the worst-rated MCU movie in the first days of its release back in 2021.
Critics went harsh on the movie’s screenplay and slow pacing, saying that much more was expected from the director after her Oscar-winning hit drama Nomadland.
Eternals also failed hard in the box office, grossing $402 million against its $236 million budget.
