Fortunate for you, we have created an “Eternals” cheat sheet of kinds so diehard and informal followers alike can maintain issues straight. Here is what it’s essential know concerning the Eternals earlier than the movie’s launch on November 5. (This author has not seen the movie but, however mild spoilers from the comics observe.)
The Eternals aren’t fairly folks, not fairly gods (although people typically mistake them for gods, which annoys the area deities who created them and the
Greek gods for which just a few of the Eternals are named). Although they every have distinctive powers, they’re all expert warriors with super-strength, pace and agility.
The heroes are principally immortal — even when their our bodies are destroyed, they’ll dwell on in different methods. However they maintain their powers secret since they dwell amongst people.
They had been despatched to Earth by the Celestials, an historic group of godlike beings, some 7,000 years earlier than the occasions of the movie to defend humankind in opposition to the Deviants, mutant monsters additionally created by the Celestials when some assessments on early Earth-dwellers went awry. The Eternals are suggested in opposition to interfering in non-Deviant enterprise, as an alternative performing as mere spectators to human battle until Deviants are concerned.
Whereas the Eternals have obeyed the Celestials till now, they’re lastly beginning to query their mission and the beings who created them.
Like most protagonists within the Marvel Cinematic Universe who’ve gotten their very own origin tales, the Eternals most likely do not fancy themselves superheroes. However by the movie’s finish, after they’ve undergone varied transformations and vanquish varied foes, they will doubtless be among the many strongest heroes within the MCU, and possibly, the MCM — the Marvel Cinematic Multiverse.
Meet Marvel’s 10 Eternals
Ikaris
Performed by: Richard Madden
Within the comics, the Eternals are sometimes led by Ikaris, often portrayed as a blond-haired, blue-eyed muscleman paying homage to He-Man however with laser eyes. In some comics appearances, he is been named the Prime Everlasting, or the Everlasting who guidelines over the remainder.
Powers: Laser-beam eyes. You identify it, Ikaris can most likely do it. He can fly at speeds as much as 850 miles per hour, creates convincing illusions and shoots laser beams out of his eyes, amongst
many other abilities.
Who knew? Within the comics, when he is in disguise as a human, he goes by the identify “Ike Harris.” Ikaris is certainly one of many brawniest Eternals, however artistic, he isn’t.
Sersi
Performed by: Gemma Chan
If it is Ikaris who usually runs the Eternals within the comics sphere, Sersi is its coronary heart. She’s one thing of a historian of humankind, having had a first-row seat to occasions like the autumn of Rome and the French Revolution, per
Marvel. You may typically discover Sersi in inexperienced, a nod, maybe, to her deep love and appreciation of the Earth and its inhabitants. She’s additionally had a centuries-long, on-and-off relationship with fellow Everlasting, Ikaris.
Powers: Matter transmutation. Principally, she will alter matter into any kind she chooses (bear in mind within the “Eternals” trailer, when she seems to dissolve a double decker bus right into a parade of petals?).
Who knew? Within the comics, Sersi joined the Avengers for a spell. Although she later give up the group full-time, she generally nonetheless helps them out after they want a hand from a godlike hero.
Sprite
Performed by: Lia McHugh
Sprite is as mischievous as her identify suggests. Although she’s simply as outdated as her counterparts, she has the looks of a perpetual preteen, which she makes use of to her benefit — one comics run noticed her starring in her personal teen sitcom. Her naivety will also be disastrous, although: In a single sequence, the Sprite “altered actuality on a cosmic scale,” in accordance with
Marvel. Sprite has additionally been written as male within the comics for a lot of the character’s run.
Powers: Illusions. The group’s
“grandiose storyteller,” Sprite casts lifelike mirages and might teleport herself if wanted.
Who knew? She was as soon as, in accordance with Marvel, a thorn within the aspect of William Shakespeare,
inspiring the Bard’s character “Puck” in “A Midsummer Evening’s Dream.”
Phastos
Performed by: Brian Tyree Henry
The inventor of the group and a sworn pacifist, Phastos can also be the primary out, homosexual superhero within the MCU. (Whereas Marvel comics characteristic numerous queer characters, just a few different characters — together with Valkyrie and Loki — have been instructed, although not confirmed, to
be queer onscreen.) Based mostly on the movie’s trailers, he is additionally a frugal house decorator with a penchant for Ikea and sarcasm.
Powers: Invention and “technopathy.” If Phastos can see one thing in his thoughts’s eye, he could make it actual — he has the power to conjure up weapons and different innovations with little greater than a thought.
Who knew? At one level within the comics, he took the codename “Ceasefire” — a nod to his stance in opposition to battle. (Nobody inform him he is a superhero created to wage battle in opposition to monsters!)
Thena
Performed by: Angelina Jolie
It is no coincidence that Thena’s identify is so just like that of the Greek goddess of battle — in accordance with
Marvel, Thena is “extra comfy in battle than wherever else.” Like Phastos, she will conjure weapons together with her thoughts, although she takes pleasure in wielding them and unleashing cosmic, PG-13 carnage.
Powers: Superhuman sparring. She’s extremely fast, robust, reflexive — a virtually unbeatable warrior.
Who knew? Within the comics, she as soon as had a dalliance with a Deviant chief named Kro, and their tumultuous relationship has hindered each the Eternals and their foes.
Ajak
Performed by: Salma Hayek
Although within the comics, Ajak is portrayed as male,
Hayek said she sees her character as a maternal determine, a “religious chief” of kinds who connects with every of them even after they’re at odds and retains the group heading in the right direction.
Powers: Therapeutic. Ajak
heals each people and Eternals, and she or he’s one of many few to have direct contact with the Celestials to obtain updates on their mission.
Who knew? Within the comics, Ajak is “good archaeologist and expert wrestler,”
Marvel says. Even godlike heroes want hobbies.
Makkari
Performed by: Lauren Ridloff
The pace runner Makkari has dashed throughout the planet and is, frankly, bored by what she’s discovered. Within the movie, the Eternals ask her to place apart her boredom for just a few days to assist them defeat the Deviants and save the world so she will traverse different planets.
Powers: Tremendous pace. Quicksilver who? Makkari is the “quickest girl within the universe,”
Marvel says.
Who knew? Ridloff is deaf — and Makkari is the primary deaf superhero within the MCU — so the
Eternals communicate with Makkari via sign language.
Kingo
Performed by: Kumail Nanjiani
Whereas lots of the different Eternals elected to dwell anonymously amongst humankind, Kingo turned a movie star (within the comics, he is an actor identified for
Japanese samurai films; within the movie, he is a Bollywood performer).
Powers:
Combating in type. Kingo can do what principally each Everlasting can do — kick butt with little effort, although he prefers to fend off foes with the panache of a number one man. He has the
ego of 1, too.
Who knew? Kingo apparently fashions himself the star of the Eternals. Thena and Ikaris would love a phrase.
Gilgamesh
Performed by: Don Lee
The strongest Everlasting and Thena’s companion, Gilgamesh is a fearsome warrior but additionally a fairly good man, in accordance with
Marvel.
Powers: Indomitable energy. In battle, Gilgamesh employs a golden “exoskeleton” that protects his arms and fists and delivers devastating blows to enemies.
Who knew? Within the comics, he was
known as “the Forgotten One” as a result of he wasn’t conscious he was an Everlasting for a few years.
Druig
Performed by: Barry Keoghan
There is a darkness to Druig that the opposite Eternals lack. Within the comics, he is typically prized his personal success above the success of the Eternals and their mission to guard people, which has made him harmful. (Additionally within the comics, he is been
drawn to resemble a vampire of kinds.)
Powers: Thoughts management. Druig can see into people’ minds and exploit their vulnerabilities. Yikes!
Who knew? Druig isolates himself from the opposite Eternals on account of his, er,
opposing view of how you can dwell alongside people, per
Marvel.
Bonus hero: Dane Whitman
Performed by: Equipment Harington
OK, so, Whitman is not a member of the Eternals, however he’s Sersi’s common human boyfriend within the movie. He might play a bigger, extra heroic position in upcoming Marvel initiatives, although nothing has been confirmed. We cannot go into the finer particulars of his comedian ebook historical past, however for readers who do not thoughts spoilers,
Marvel has an expansive biography.