Last month, we got the first teaser for Marvel Studios' upcoming film, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, the second feature film in the MCU's planned Phase Four. (Black Widow will be the first when it premieres in July.) Now we have our first real look at Eternals, in which members of an immortal alien race with cosmic powers reunite to protect the Earth from their malevolent counterparts.
The film is based on the comic book series of the same name created by Jack Kirby in 1976. The storyline tells of alien Celestials who visited Earth a million years ago, creating two divergent races—the Eternals and the Deviants—by way of genetic experiments. Those experiments were also responsible for the rare emergence of mutations in certain humans, giving them super powers. The Eternals protect the human race from the Deviants, and the two races engage in recurrent violent clashes. The Eternals' immortality and powers come from cosmic energy and their ability to channel it.
Kirby was partly inspired by Arthur C. Clarke's Childhood's End (1953)—which featured Overlords who controlled Earth's fate—and the 1968 nonfiction bestseller Chariots of the Gods by Erich von Daniken, postulating the concept of alien gods. Eternals also owes something to New Gods, Kirby's own earlier series for DC Comics, circa 1970. When that epic saga series was cancelled (and left incomplete), he wrote Eternals for Marvel Comics. A new Eternals comic series was launched in January of this year, written by Kieron Gillen with art by Esad Ribić.
Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige envisioned the Eternals as being the inspiration for human myths and legends over millennia. Eternals director Chloe Zhao—fresh off Oscar wins for best picture and best director for last year's Nomadland—has said she wanted to blend Kirby's original "ancient aliens" vision with her own love of science fiction, fantasy, and manga. She has also cited the 2015 film The Revenant as an influence for action sequences.
Per the official premise, the film "features an exciting new team of Super Heroes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, ancient aliens who have been living on Earth in secret for thousands of years. Following the events of Avengers: Endgame, an unexpected tragedy forces them out of the shadows to reunite against mankind's most ancient enemy, The Deviants." There's no indication yet of what that tragedy might be, but most of the main characters are third-, fourth-, and fifth-generation Eternals, if we're going by the comics—except for Gilgamesh (Don Lee aka Ma Dong-seok, Train to Busan), who is second-generation.