Longtime fans of Jack Kirby's Eternals have already observed changes made to the characters for the team's upcoming cinematic debut, and for one particular Eternal, the film is also making a significant change to the character's power set.
Kumail Nanjiani, who plays master fighter Kingo in the movie, describes how his character's powers evolved over the course of the film's development. "They actually changed my power at one point," the actor told Collider. "I was going to be really good with swords -- I was going to have two swords, and that was at the first meeting. And the second meeting [director Chloé Zhao] was like, 'No, I don't want to have swords -- he's going to do finger guns.'"
"I was like, finger guns?," Nanjiani continued. "That sounds so goofy. She's like, 'Trust me, it's going to look great.' She was right -- it looks great."
The switch is in fact a fundamental change from the character as he originally appeared in the comics. Kingo Sunen was introduced in 1976's Eternals #11, patterning himself after Japanese Samurai warriors from centuries ago, replete with a single Samurai-style sword. Over the years, the character evolved, later eschewing the traditional robe for Samurai-like armor, and sometimes arming himself with an additional sword.
Like his fellow Eternals, Kingo also possesses more mainstream powers like flight and super-strength, and Nanjiani talked about the team's eclectic array of abilities. "What's interesting to me about this movie and superpowers is that you have Ikaris who has the more traditional superhero powers, right?," Nanjiani continued. "He flies, he shoots beams, his powers are like, physical strength."
"On the other end of the spectrum you have Sersi, whose powers are very nature based, right? She turns things into flowers, she can affect matter. Those are two very different kinds of power, so to me it was exciting to do a superhero movie where you really can sort of get into what traditional superhero powers are, and what is a different version of that that perhaps has been discounted previously."
The comics version of Kingo frequently relied more on his fighting abilities than his inborn powers, so the cinematic version, whose weapons are now a subset of those powers, stands to bear little resemblance to his comic book namesake.
Eternals arrives in theaters on Nov. 5.
Source: Collider