Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige revealed the studio intended early on for Eternals to be a "bold new step" in the trajectory of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
"That was the whole idea," Feige shared at an Eternals press conference attended by CBR. "Nate Moore, our producer, really had that driving vision for what this could be."
According to Feige, bringing on director Chloé Zhao and giving her the artistic freedom to interpret Jack Kirby's source material ensured the film would be "a very new special step for [the MCU]."
"It was in a post-Infinity Saga world -- we wanted to make a bold new step and say, 'You don't know everything about the universe yet,'" he continued. "And that there are these 10 spectacular heroes who you haven't met who've been here the whole time."
The Marvel head also explained the studio intentionally sought out a diverse cast in hopes of reflecting what humanity has really looked like across time. Specifically, Feige said, "As Nate [Moore] was advocating for this project, [we realized] you can't do the history of humanity without the heroes looking like a cross-section of humanity. And [that's] really what the goal was."
In addition to serving as a bit of a left turn story-wise, Eternals holds a unique distinction within the MCU by featuring a plot that doesn't necessarily rely on context from previous films. Moore recently explained how and why they did this with Eternals, noting, "We felt like there was enough story that it could be a contained universe. We definitely have ideas of how things can cross over later. But this movie with 10 characters and Dane Whitman and the Celestials and the Deviants, there was enough for us to play with." It was also previously confirmed Eternals consists of two separate storylines -- one set in the past and one in the present.
While Eternals only hit theaters this week, it's already stirred up its fair share of controversy by being pulled from theaters in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar. According to reports, the film was likely pulled due to its inclusion of same-sex couple Phastos (Brian Tyree Henry) and his husband Ben (Haaz Sleiman). Despite the hiccup, advance ticket sales for Eternals in North America outpaced Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, and the film is expected to bring in $75 million during its opening weekend.
Directed by Chloé Zhao, Eternals stars Richard Madden, Gemma Chan, Angelina Jolie, Salma Hayek, Kumail Nanjiani and Kit Harington. Catch it in theaters now.
Source: Eternals press conference