In case you forgot, Marvel will be coming out with The Eternals in 2021. A new team yet to be introduced in the live-action capacity, we’re all patiently awaiting the Chloe Zhao-directed film.
It has also been a while since we’ve heard anything about The Eternals. Luckily, we’re now getting some information from a recent THR interview about Zhao. Currently, Zhao is sitting in an empty lot at Disney, completing post-production on the upcoming MCU film. Before we find out who The Eternals are, President of Marvel Studios Kevin Feige offered some insight on who Zhao is:
“Chloé will go toe to toe about Malick, or as esoteric and small a film as has ever been made, but also on Star Wars or on [Japanese superhero franchise] One-Punch Man in a way that is quite unique and quite spectacular. She would finish some giant production meeting with us that involved the creation and approval of dozens of costumes, creature design, intergalactic designs. And then she would get into her half solar power, half corn oil or whatever it was van, and drive out to the Dakotas for Nomadland. That she can fit in in all of these environments is remarkable.”
Feige also recalls when Zhao came to pitch the idea for the unknown Marvel team:
“Her initial pitch to us was fascinating. And frankly one of the reasons we moved forward on the movie was because of the vision that she brought to it.”
Zhao also went on to explain how she injected some childhood inspiration in The Eternals:
“I have such deep, strong, manga roots. I brought some of that into Eternals. And I look forward to pushing more of that marriage of East and West.”
Zhao asked herself:
“How much further and bigger can we go after [Avengers:] Endgame? Because I’m not just making the film as a director. I’m making the film as a fan.”
Zhao also explained how she was given the right amount of creative freedom when working on The Eternals:
“I shot exactly the way I wanted to shoot. On location. A lot of magic hour. Three-hundred-sixty degrees on the same camera as I did on Nomadland. Same rigs. It’s a bit surreal. I’m still waiting for the shoe to drop. It hasn’t. I think I got lucky in that Marvel wants to take risks and do something different.”
As for the LGBTQ relationship featured in The Eternals, a huge accomplishment for Disney and the superhero genre; Feige said:
[An LGBTQ relationship in the film] “was always sort of inherent in the story and the makeup of the different types of Eternals. I think it is extremely well done, and I look forward to that level of inclusion in our future movies being less of a topic.”
Finally, Zhao talked about what she wants viewers to walk away with after seeing her movie:
“I wanted it to reflect the world we live in. But also I wanted to put a cast together that feels like a group of misfits. I didn’t want the jocks. I want you to walk away at the end of the movie not thinking, ‘This person is this ethnicity, that person is that nationality.’ No. I want you to walk away thinking, ‘That’s a family.’ You don’t think about what they represent. You see them as individuals.”
Are you excited for The Eternals?
Source: THR
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