When Eternals was released in 2021, it became Marvel Studios' first "Rotten" movie. Between that and the fact that it dropped during the final months of the pandemic, the Chloé Zhao-helmed blockbuster struggled to make its mark at the box office, grossing only $402 million worldwide.
While there's no denying it was a little overstuffed (including an abysmal villain in Kro), there was a lot about Eternals that did work. The movie arguably has something of an undeserved bad rap, particularly as it showed a different side of the MCU and set the stage for exciting future stories.
Unfortunately, four years later, Marvel Studios still hasn't announced plans to resolve the movie's big cliffhanger. As a result, it's unclear when or where we'll learn what became of the Eternals taken from Earth by Arishem for judgment after their role in stopping Tiamut's emergence.
There are, however, some pretty intriguing rumours doing the rounds this week about this team's MCU future, so we'll see.
Kumail Nanjiani (Only Murders in the Building) played Kingo and was an undeniable highlight as the character. In a new interview, he talked candidly about the impact that the disappointing reaction to Eternals had on him.
"It came out right after COVID, so I had a year and a half at home to be just like, 'When this thing comes out...'" Nanjiani said of his excitement to for the world to see the movie, and the expected impact it would have on his career. "It came out, it got really bad reviews, and it didn't do that well. It shattered me too much. That was when I was like, 'Oh, I need to go to therapy to figure this out.'"
The Obi-Wan Kenobi star went on to reveal what his MCU future looked like when he first boarded the franchise. "I was like, 'This is going to be my job for the next ten years.' I signed on for six movies. I signed on for a video game. I signed on for a theme park ride. They make you sign on for all this stuff. You're like, 'Okay, so I'll be doing Marvel movies every year, and in between, I'll do my own little things. Whatever I want to do.'"
"None of that happened," he noted. "For me, what really hit me was realising that too much of my self-esteem is wrapped up in other people's reactions to my work. People have way bigger problems than this."
As for how he looks back at Eternals all these years later, Nanjiani said, "There were a few too many people in Eternals if the reviews are to be believed. I loved the movie. I'm very proud of it."
The biggest takeaway from this interview is the fact that Marvel Studios clearly expected Eternals to be a huge success. At the time, there was talk of it being as big as the X-Men franchise, and Oscar buzz dominated many headlines in the months leading up to its release.
The actor later reprised the role of Kingo in a standout episode of What If...? alongside Kathryn Hahn. There's been no sign of the character in live-action, though rumours persist that Nanjiani is gearing up to make the leap to the DCU as its Booster Gold.
You can hear more from the actor in the player below (he starts discussing Eternals around the 44-minute mark).