2021 has been a massive year for the Marvel Cinematic universe, seeing the release of numerous new TV series on Disney Plus like Loki and What If…?, along with new movies like Black Widow and next month’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.
As for the most recent development in major MCU news, the final trailer for The Eternals has been released, revealing plenty of new information about the film and its story. While most of the trailer focuses on the titular group of heroes, it also introduces some new, very important players in the story. Some of these new characters may be familiar to Marvel fans, but others might be too obscure for even some of the most die-hard comic readers.
Multiple clips in the trailer feature awe-inspiring shots of massive giants floating through space, clad in intimidating metal armor. One memorable shot even features one of these cosmic titans seemingly conjuring a galaxy out of thin air, showing off the kind of power that was previously only thought to be held by the Infinity Gauntlet. These otherworldly beings are known as the Celestials, and if that name sounds familiar, there’s a good reason for that.
The existence of the Celestials has already been teased by the MCU multiple times. In the first Guardians of the Galaxy, the memorable setting of Knowhere — the space station where the Guardians go to hand the Power Stone off to the Collector — is said by Gamora to be “the severed head of an ancient Celestial being.” Later, the Collector shows the Guardians a holographic presentation depicting the history of the Infinity Stones, including a brief scene of a living Celestial using the Power Stone to destroy an entire planet.
Even more notably, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 reveals that Star-Lord’s father Ego is a Celestial, making Star-Lord himself a human-Celestial hybrid. This twist is a deviation from the comics, which depict the Celestials as biomechanical life forms who are never seen without their nearly-indestructible armor. But regardless of its basis in the source material, the fact that the Celestials seen in the Eternals trailer are members of Ego’s species is enough to emphasize how big a deal they are for the MCU’s future.
The Celestials originally appeared in the comics in The Eternals #2, released in August 1976. They, along with the Eternals themselves, were created by legendary comic artist and writer Jack Kirby, who co-created the likes of the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, and the Avengers, and also created Darkseid and the New Gods over at DC. In the comics, the Celestials are the oldest species in the universe — a race of near-omnipotent entities of vast cosmic power, who travel the universe performing experiments on various planets and their inhabitants as part of some unknown agenda. They originally traveled to Earth in the Stone Age, using their reality-warping powers to create Earth’s first superhuman beings.
Thanks to the Celestials’ experiments, humanity in the Marvel Comics universe were given the X-Gene, allowing mutants like the X-Men to eventually come into being. But more relevant to the Eternals film, the Celestials also created two superpowered subspecies of humanity: the godlike Eternals and monstrous Deviants. The Deviants are also shown off for the first time in the latest Eternals trailer, albeit with a very different look than their comic counterparts. The comic book Deviants, also debuting in Jack Kirby’s original Eternals run, are a race of intelligent humanoids with monstrous appearances, who live in the underwater city of Lemuria and scheme to conquer the surface world.
By contrast, the Deviants in the Eternals film seem to be purely bestial beings, resembling dragons or dinosaurs. They appear snarling and feral, without the sentience of the comic book Deviants — with one notable exception. Near the end of the trailer, Angelina Jolie’s character Thena appears in a cave, trapped in the writhing tentacles of a freakish-looking four-eyed humanoid who strokes her face while ominously saying “You can’t protect any of them.” This mysterious villain has been confirmed to be the Eternals’ comic book nemesis, the Deviant warlord known as Kro.
Kro’s role in the film remains uncertain — he hasn’t appeared in any of the movie’s marketing until now, and the identity of the actor providing his voice is still unknown. However, his intimate gesture towards Thena suggests that he retains his comic book counterpart’s affection for her. In Kirby’s Eternals run, he portrayed Thena and Kro as two star-crossed lovers, hiding secret feelings for one another as they do battle on opposite sides. But besides that one humanizing trait, Kro is a relatively standard villain in the comics: a power-hungry despot with a demonic appearance and ambitions of world domination. But considering how the MCU has made the likes of Killmonger, the Vulture, and even Thanos compelling and sympathetic figures, it’s possible that Kro could soon join them as a fan favorite MCU villain.
Exactly what kind of part the Celestials, the Deviants, and Kro will play in The Eternals isn’t entirely clear for now. Like Guardians of the Galaxy before it, it’s hard to know what to expect from this film since it’s based on a relatively obscure comic series. But if the MCU has proved one thing, it’s that it can take unknown characters and reinvent them to resonate with countless fans. Time will tell if The Eternals follows in the footsteps of past Marvel films and popularize its title characters. But regardless of whether the film is a success, bringing beings as powerful as the Celestials into the story is sure to have an impact on the MCU’s future.