After pushing their movie lineup back several times due to the pandemic, Marvel is back at it with releasing their films on the big screen. The next phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is finally taking off. One of the upcoming movies on their slate is Eternals, which follows a race of immortal beings who have secretly lived on Earth for thousands of years. From the first glimpses that have been released so far, it seems that Eternals could be the most unique Marvel movie yet. Let’s take an in-depth look at the trailer and see what details we can discover. 

The first lines in the trailer acknowledge the events of Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. Salma Hayek’s character, Ajak, mentions that “Thanos wiped out half of the population of the universe, but the people of this planet brought everyone back with the snap of a finger.” It’s certainly good to know that what happened in previous films will actually have an impact on everything going forward. It makes the events in those movies feel like they actually have some weight to them.

She then explains that those events “provided the necessary energy for the Emergence to begin.” Hopefully there’s a less vague explanation as to how that works. It feels like a somewhat lazy answer right now, but a trailer can only show so much. It’ll be interesting to learn what the Emergence actually is. Something crashes to Earth and causes a great deal of destruction, so it’s probably not very good. Whatever this Emergence is, it’s coming in seven days, so hopefully it’s not too much of a threat. 

The Eternals gather around a statue of what appears to be a Celestial on their spaceship. It looks like the statue is granting them their powers. Perhaps this statue is just the vessel used by the real Celestial to give their powers to them. 

They explain that they came to Earth seven thousand years ago to protect the world from the Deviants. Considering the Eternals haven’t stepped in to protect humanity from literally anything else, these Deviants must be a bigger threat than anything we’ve seen so far in the MCU. The Deviants certainly look threatening, as we get a glimpse at a demonic-looking dragon creature emerging from the ocean. 

One of the Eternals blasts the Deviant with laser eye beams and flies toward it ready for battle. Here is our first look at what the Eternals’ superpowers may look like. It definitely seems like their abilities will make the action absolutely intense. 

The big question is finally asked: “Why didn’t you guys help fight Thanos, or any war, or any of the other terrible things throughout history?” If they’re these almighty beings that have been tasked with protecting humanity for thousands of years, then surely they would be able to handle Thanos with ease. Thankfully, we do get an explanation. 

We’re told that the Eternals “were instructed not to interfere in any human conflicts unless the deviants are involved.” Have the Deviants caused trouble before? If not, then they’ve been doing a lot of nothing for seven thousand years. 

That does bring up another important question: Who instructed them to do that? Thankfully, it’s immediately answered! An ominous shot of a Celestial, which looks to either be Arishem the Judge or Eson the Searcher, then shows us how terrifying this potential big bad will appear. 

Reuniting the Eternals seems to be one of the central plot points of the film, which means they’ve been apart for some time. It makes one wonder if they’ve had a falling out of some sort and if that will be detrimental to them at any point. They apparently haven’t seen each other in centuries, so they may not even recognize each other. If they’re reborn as different people after each lifespan, or are just using human disguises, then reuniting with them may be especially difficult. They’ve got to be reborn again and again considering one of them is a literal child. 

The Eternals seem to be skilled with weapons, as one of them uses a blade. We also see another glimpse of their powers, which include the ability to create energy weapons from seemingly nothing. Again, the action in this film should be rather unique judging by their powers. 

“This is what the end of the world looks like,” says one of the members of the Eternals. If it’s the end of the world, where are the remaining Avengers? Shouldn’t they be helping out?

There’s then a fun quick look at some of the characters’ personalities when one Eternal jokes that another’s sarcasm has never saved the planet.This type of humor is expected in anything related to the MCU, but it is fun. It is interesting that a lot of this trailer shows how different it can be from the rest of the MCU, but the same type of humor prevents it from being too different despite that humor being fun.

The next scene in the trailer shows the Eternals summoning their spaceship. The ship rising out from the ground is incredible imagery. This is also when it’s revealed that the film is directed by Chloè Zhao, the Academy Award winning director behind Nomadland. This certainly sets up the expectation that we’re in for a visual masterpiece. 

The Eternals talk about loving humanity and protecting what they love. This is a great sentiment, but they didn’t do a great job protecting what they love before just because they were told not to do it. 

The next few shots of the trailer show beautiful landscapes, gorgeous effects inside of spaceships, and a realistic-looking volcano erupting. This is definitely the mark of Zhao’s talented directing. 

Kumail Nanjiani’s character, Kingo, uses more of that gold energy to blast another terrifying Deviant. It seems this ability can be used in quite a few different ways, which will be helpful to shake up the action throughout the film. Also, the designs of these Deviants are creepier than anything we’ve seen thus far in the MCU. 

Another Celestial is shown, and this time it looks to be Nezarr the Calculator, but like the other Celestials previously shown in the trailer, it’s a little tough to tell because of the differences between the comic book and live action versions. We’ve seen very brief appearances of Celestials in the MCU before, like in Guardians of the Galaxy, but it seems that they are finally stepping into the spotlight and preparing to play a much larger role. Perhaps the Celestials are the next big bad in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Only time will tell, though. 

The majority of the next shots in the trailer showcase more of the Eternals’ gold energy powers and using it to form weapons to fight Deviants. This action looks absolutely intense and rather creative. There is one shot, though, where Angelina Jolie’s character is bound by an alien creature. He looks menacing enough to be the primary antagonist of the movie, which is interesting considering there are the Celestials to worry about as well. Perhaps he is related to the Celestials in some way. 

The trailer ends with another quick joke in which one Eternal smashes another’s furniture thinking it’s made out of Vibranium, but it turns out it’s just Ikea’s fall collection. This is actually really funny, but it holds some importance to it as well. It shows that, even though the Eternals have been around for thousands of years, the main story of the movie will take place during modern day. 

This trailer is definitely fantastic because of how much it informs the audience about the movie without showing too much of it. It also gives fans of both the Marvel Cinematic Universe and classic comic book readers a lot to be excited about. 

The big takeaway after watching through this trailer is that Eternals will feel more like an epic fantasy film rather than the usual superhero formula, and that’s not a bad thing. After over twenty movies and a handful of TV series, something new and different is more than welcome. Plus, it’s been quite a while since we’ve gotten a grand-scale fantasy adventure like The Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter. So far, it looks like Eternals will be an exciting addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Eternals comes to theaters November 5th, 2021.