Although it’s currently the biggest pop culture franchise in the world, the Marvel Cinematic Universe is far from perfect. Not every Marvel character is a guaranteed winner, and its pre-Disney+ television properties in particular struggled more often than not. Before the MCU, there were plenty of cinematic misfires amid triumphs like the best of the Spider-Man and X-Men movies. Even now, with Phase Four successfully underway and Disney+’s phalanx of shows delighting the fan base, creative risks remain abundant.
With the success of Shang-Chi and the Legend of Ten Rings taking it out of that troubling discussion, some fans have cast an eye on Eternals and wonder how much of a gamble it might be for the franchise. In point of fact, however, the risk is quite mitigated. The MCU’s biggest risk is yet to come, and Disney purchased an entire studio for it. The X-Men, and how they enter the franchise, might just be the most daunting challenge Marvel will ever face. And simply put, it’s too big to fail.
Eternals constitutes a roll of the dice, to be certain. Its characters are little known outside the fan base, and even among Marvel aficionados, they can be a little obscure. They also share many traits with another group of Marvel characters – the Inhumans – who were the subject of a television show that lasted only one season. Like the Eternals, the Inhumans were obscure characters whose comics never caught fire, and even the most talented screenwriter might be hard-pressed to turn them into compelling television. Eternals carries the same risks, but at the same time, those very qualities help insulate it from potential fallout. Inhumans, for example, was released in the fall of 2017, in the wake of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Spider-Man: Homecoming and Thor: Ragnarok, with Black Panther and Avengers: Infinity War waiting to be released. That’s a formidable line-up when competing for Marvel fans’ attention, and the slower pace and smaller budget of a TV show made it all the more difficult to make a splash with its characters.
Eternals, conversely, arrives reasonably early in Phase Four, with comparatively little competition. While Spider-Man: No Way Home follows it, Shang-Chi shared many of the risks that Eternals is taking, while Black Widow looks very much to be that character’s finale rather than generating excitement for ongoing adventures. Many of the first MCU heroes are gone or retired, while other A-list characters have migrated to Disney+. That gives the Eternals an open stage to shine while fans wait for Spider-Man. Star power still makes a difference too. Audiences may be induced to see Eternals simply because of veteran A-listers like Angelina Jolie and Salma Hayek in prominent roles, something Inhumans couldn’t match. Even if the film fails, No Way Home and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness are waiting in the wings. A stumble, however unexpected, wouldn’t affect the franchise at all beyond the Eternals themselves, who likely just wouldn’t appear again as the MCU moved on.
The X-Men, however, are a much different story. They were one of Marvel’s tentpole superhero teams in the 1980s and 90s, and the film franchise at 20th Century Fox helped pave the way for both the early Spider-Man films and the MCU. Thus, fans have sky-high expectations for the characters, driven by both the comics and now-legendary performances from the likes of Hugh Jackman. Disney has further heightened anticipation by demonstrating how far it was willing to go to bring Marvel’s mutants into the MCU fold at last, to the point where they bought up Fox’s movie wing to do so. Not only do they have to justify all of that attention, but they have to do so in the shadow of the previous X-Men films, an admittedly mixed lot whose high points nonetheless stand as modern classics.
With the creation of the multiverse and the MCU’s confirmed willingness to bring original characters over from earlier franchises, there are several ways to integrate the X-Men into the mix. Mutants could arise from any number of factors – anything from the Snap to incursions from other realities – and can arrive suddenly or build up slowly over the course of multiple projects. The Scarlet Witch is the MCU’s primary link to its mutant division, and her efforts could affect their arrival in countless other ways as well.
Then there’s the question of figures like Jackman, who bowed out rather definitively with Logan in 2017 but might be induced to return to the role as part of a multiverse crossover. X-23 and his other charges from that film might crossover too, with Laura Kinney providing an MCU substitute for Logan that keeps Jackman retired without the challenges of recasting. How and where any such figure appears is a serious creative question constituting a new set of risks.
All of which leaves the X-Men fraught with peril as far as fan expectations go, something Eternals doesn’t need to worry about. Indeed, the sheer size of bringing the X-Men onboard almost prevents failure. The fact that Disney refused to rush the process indicates that they understand the stakes involved, and with Phase Four being a smashing success thus far, they can handle this most important property with care. Fans likely won’t see them before Phase Five at the earliest, giving Marvel years of development time as well as the Fantastic Four to keep audiences happy in the interim.
Anything is possible, of course, but the size and scope of the X-Men both raises the stakes exponentially and all but ensures its expectations will be met. Eternals, conversely, is much less of a risk. Its success will add to the MCU, matching the likes of Guardians of the Galaxy, which seemed equally risky at the time it was released. A failure, on the other hand, will be forgiven and forgotten very quickly. However it unfolds, the X-Men’s arrival in the franchise will not have such a luxury.