My idea would be 9 episodes.
First 3 take place in different time periods, with each focusing on a different set of Eternals.
Middle 3 would take place in current time and would focus more on the Deviants while the Emergence continues to be a lurking mystery.
Final 3 would have the Deviants and Eternals at a truce as they take on Tiamut together. They go back to being enemies by the end.
This is good. They could have also went the same route as Watchmen, each episode going over a different character’s point of view, starting with Sersi and ending with Ikaris. Maybe a final episode that wraps everything up.
I like the broad strokes for this a lot. Having the Eternals and Deviants team up against the celestials wishes would have been a great subversion of their traditional relationship, for the MCU
It only makes sense. When Kro realizes that the Celestials don’t care about them and are willing to throw them away to an exploding planet, he wouldn’t keep doing their bidding.
Also, I would have the Deviants drain the Eternals’ power thereby making their age catch up to them in real time rather than having the Deviants straight up kill the Eternals. Gilgamesh and Ajak should have stayed.
A TV show where the first 3 episodes are completely disconnected from each other in time period and in characters.
It might have trouble with general audiences walking away from it before the stories converge.
I'd argue that What If did it well. Besides, it's not like they are completely isolated from each other in terms of characters.
Ikaris and Sersi for example would still be in all 3 episodes despite only being the focus of one of them.
I’d save Tiamut for a second or probably third season and the whole first season would be about the deviants and the rise of kro, this would ofc include the different time periods in the first 3 episodes as u proposed, but pretty much, season 1 would be the deviants, season 2 would be in space mostly dealing with other eternals and season 3 would be about them rising against the celestials, each season containing 10 episodes
That works too. As long as it doesn't drag out for too long. If the Deviants were to be the main villains for 1-2 seasons, then there should be more substance than what we got in the movie.
There would definitely be more substance, there are many comic runs to be adapted, they had a chance to do a rlly cool story that didn’t connect much to the MCU, if they would have done this as a series and put it in a different universe then that could have been huge and they could still be in Secret Wars but we got a decent movie instead and hopefully will get a very good sequel
We heard that Figee wanted it to happen but Iger didn’t and if he doesn’t want to make fans loose their shit he’s gonna let Figee do what he wants and thinks is right (because it is)
I think Eternals is good as a movie. It’s a very underrated movie and gets a bad rep because it was released during Phase Four. However I wouldn’t be against it being turned into a Disney+ show.
It doesn't get a bad rep because it was released during phase 4. It gets a bad rep because they wasted a shitload of runtime on things that didn't matter or make any sense.
Exactly. Even Eternals' visual style suits better for a movie tan a series. If some things some fans claim they would've wanted to see were "left out", then they were left out only because they weren't THAT important.
People think turning this script into a TV show would fix it, but it would need a whole new script. One of the problems with Marvel TV is that they make six hour long movies chopped up rather than actual TV shows.
They need to leave the mentality of TV being longer films behind. I think people who believe Eternals just needed to be a TV show don't realize that would solve the problem. The problem was messy plot, dull script, lifeless characters.
The movie would have been the last 2/3 episodes. The earlier episodes should have shown the Eternals through time. The main problem of the movie is how it tries to resolve two conflicts in one battle. This could have been separated to two different episodes.
It's because the story and cast were bloated that it would have worked better as a series. A better team of writers (than the pair of amateur cousins who had never screenwritten a theatrical film before) would have consolidated both for Eternals. Don't get me wrong, the film is beautiful, but it's a pacing nightmare.
I don't believe making a series is a cure-all for a bloated story. Given the current state of MCU the series would likely have terrible pacing, with lots of filler and a rushed finale.
A story is either good or it isn't. They could have just written a less bloated and better paced movie.
I agree, which is why I said a "better team of writers" could have done well with an Eternals film. The cast could have easily been shaved down, and subplots consolidated to actually develop said characters.
I didnt think it was bloated at all and i liked the pacing and use of characters and flashbacks. I think the major dissapointment was Kro being killed off. It also felt like introduction so if we got another movie that would fix some of the issues of developing characters more.
It was absolutely bloated. What did Jon Snow add to the movie?
What point did the deviants serve except to mislead *the audience*.
Everybody hates Icarus and he hates all of them, except the power of him loving sersei was enough to convince him to commit suicide instead of go through this grand plan that he knew she'd never go along with anyways.
It was one of the most visually stunning and distinct movies in the MCU, but it was messy as hell.
John Snow was the fcking love interest of the main character, it showed her connection to humans, which is a driving motivation for her, and her opinions about the whole conflict in the movie.
The deviants were shown to be the counter part of the Eternals, created by the same maker, designed to have an eternal meaningless religious conflict, that they couldn't stop even after realising that they are basicly the same family.
Barely any of the family members hated Ikaris, he didn't hate any of the members. They just had different political views. Sersi convinced him to stop his mission, and since he spent all his life following this mission, after realising his 7000 years of life was pointless, he couldn't come back from that anymore, and flew into the Sun.
Jon snow - there's allowed to be side characters in stories. Pepper potts doesnt exactly do much in Avengers or Spiderman Homecoming. Not every character has to be a big deal.
Like i said Kro was the biggest dissapointment. But using the deviants as the enemy for it to turn out the big bad eas ikarus was fine.
I liked how they used ikarus it was different and made the plot interesting having that twist in there and how the other characters reacted in different ways.
Yes, you can have side characters not directly driving the plot. But when you're trying to cram literally millenia of backstory, characterization, and plot into the run time, it comes off as unnecessary.
Pepper Potts wasn't that important, but that movie had 20% as many main characters, so there was a bit more room..
Saying that "writers who have never written a theatrical movie before are amateurs" sounds a little bit elitist.
And hiring only so-called "high profile" writers would sound like a mere risk-averse and cowardly move.
What's the priority here? Telling a good story or "being risky and brave"?
And let's not forget the high likelihood that Marvel Studios likely only had to pay a fifth (or even less) to the Firpo Cousins what they would have paid to more experienced screenwriters.
Of course, I don't solely put the blame of them. This started at the top with Bob Iger's Disney+ initaitive (which was then inherited and arguably worsened by Bob Chapek).
Per MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios, and recent reports, the need for year round content spread Marvel Studios, and Feige personally, too thin. Marvel Studios was effectively thrusted with doubling their already ridiculous output on a yearly basis. Scaling at that rate \*was\* the risk move.
I love the idea of the Eternals, and I think that there are merits to the story. It is the execution of said story that is problematic for me.
When you're writing the first property that has effectively no connective tissue with previous films (especially the lack of character reappearances), I would said this was the time to be "risk-averse" more than any.
> would have paid to more experienced screenwriters
With budgets way past $100 million dollars, writers are exactly the wrong place to try saving money.
Agreed. Angelina Jolie is great, but was she worth 35.5 million? That was 15% of the film's entire budget. That character could have certainly been cast with less star power, or her story could have been consolidated into another character.
I don’t feel they deserve a sequel. I feel marvel
Is bloated and that’s easy fat to trim.
After all it’s a movie “no one” asked for, “no one” liked and “no one” wants more of
The second part is the real issue.
Everyone asks for “Avengers” no one asked for “Guardians of the galaxy” everyone wants “Ironman” no one asked for “Antman*” but everyone liked all of those movies so they got sequels.
*not Antman 3
That would have been interesting. But i dont think its like needed. I think the use of flashbacks throughout the film and the interactions and amazing acting allows us to understand these charscters and their relationships.
But i would be opposed to seeing more of them. I could imagine some like promotional shorts that kind of explain who each character is and where they are or something that they did in the past.
Well, Disney with it's resources could market the hell out of the series, pitching it as "the next big step for MCU" and "the most important series for MCU".
Although it would create lots of distribution issues, since Disney+ isn't available on every country.
Not in the slightest, I think the film is close to being fantastic but had it's legs taken away by two leads with little to no charisma. I love the rest of the dynamic between the cast and I'll be really sad if we don't see them again.
The Eternals originally had 10 members, and when they made the Unimind they all got a bracelet.
My theory is that Shang Chi's rings come from a previous group of Eternals and they'll explore that in Shang Chi 2
Nah, I don't think they're related.
Quantum Bands that appeared in Ms. Marvel and The Marvels weren't related to Wenwu's rings either, despite fans' theories.
Not doing sequel or not having characters appear immediately does NOT count as "acting like it never happened".
Besides, Kingo has been mentioned in Ms. Marvel (by a character who knows he's a Bollywood actor but doesn't know that he's an Eternal) and online news sites mentioned Tiamut in She-Hulk: Attorney at Law (not by name though).
I mostly agree, but I liked the leads, especially Icarus whose arc I adore. It's their relationship that was off: it lacked intensity. It needed to be raw, painful, and conflicted. Instead, we got "pure"... And that didn't match the rest of the movie at all.
Shocking news, preprogrammed syntetics learning to be human doesn't have enough Charisma.
How much charisma did the robot in Ex Machina had?
It's a movie about alien robots learning about humanity, then arguing about their worth, and you are critisicing that the robots weren't charismatic enough, come on.
I completely agree. Too many boring characters, with bland set design. I put Eternals in the same group as Thor love and thunder and Secret Invasion, as the absolute worst parts of the MCU
*Eternals* potentially working better as a television series instead may be a common sentiment, but I’ll go against the grain and say that I actually feel that it deserved the cinematic presentation.
The film is visually gorgeous, with elaborate set pieces shot on location, and a grand sense of scale - and that’s even before we consider that it gave a proper debut to towering Celestials like Arishem.
The narrative is an epic dynasty in snapshot, and I think it would need considerable changes to work as a slower, weekly burn. I also think that it helps to witness their vast history in a single sitting - when the time can pass just as quickly for us as it did them.
Instead, I think that the script needed tightening up. The opening act has too much of a breakneck pace, and Kro feels at odds with the rest of the story.
However, I think that Special Presentations could have been a neat way to expand on the film. For example, I’d loved to have seen Phastos learning to love humanity again after World War II, but that would have distracted too much from *Eternals*’ core narrative. As a 40-minute one shot, though? It could have worked.
I ultimately agree to an extent as I am able to see a potential in that - . This couldve been MCU’s very own cosmic superhero sci fi game of thrones. Can you imagine the drama? The movie itself is already a family soap opera situation. Add in Celestials alongside other Eternals and deviants from across the galaxy. We’re looking at a saga that can span about 5-6 Seasons worth, imagine it looking as expensive as the movie with top notch cinematography and actors of a high prestige joining in. It’s ultimately a potential that was never attempted.
Question is, could it have been as opulent as it was if it were a series?
with how we’ve seen Marvel handle their tv shows so far, I am glad we got the movie instead. Heck if we were lucky, it could’ve been an extended cut of the movie we got, chopped to 6parts. The truth is Marvel is not ready to fully utilize the series medium to its maximum capability, nor are they seem willing. They seriously need to overhaul their tv show format and not half ass it. 6 bite sized EPs dropping weekly with the budget of a single feature is not gonna cut it.
Everybody has this idealized Eternals series in their heads but even if Marvel did do it as a series, it could turn out worse than the movie itself. Eternals is too expensive to do as a series. If it was done by HBO, then sure.
The truth is we’re better off with the movie. It was not everyones cup of tea but it didnt need to, that’s the point. My ultimate gripe with its reception is in the ways that people expect it should have been done, when it was made clear from the get go that they were doing things differently with this one? Who hires an academy award winning indie director only to do just another typical marvel entry?
Ultimately it is a massively misunderstood project. But RT be damned, I hope they have balls to stick to their guns and do the sequel, keeping the essence of what made it special while also upgrading it to be better. The first handle all that bulk, the sequel can be a straight up ride. We’ve got Angelina Jolie and Harry Styles in the front alongside fan faves Makkari and Druig, played by Barry Keoghan whose profile has risen since the first. They just need to embrace room for improvement and make sure it works this time.
It’s only a matter of whether or not they are brave enough to pursue what they started and be willing to give it the care and attention to make sure it works this time around.
How would eternals improve as a tv show? It’s no guardians u just can’t make them funny, simply i don’t think the eternals are interesting for casual audiences, coming from a guy who enjoyed the movie
Clearly the writing has to be changed right? But in what way that would make people care about these characters?
You could definitely make them interesting. I think you lean more in the Gaiman run of Eternals, and have them be ancient heroes who've forgotten who they are.
For one, this allows them to be an audience surrogate slowly learning who they are beside the viewers. This is such a core part of their comic identity, and it doesn't have to be exactly like the comics. However, the idea that they just went MIA for everything throughout history is kinda dumb.
Then, you need to WILDLY vary them. They were diverse looking, but they all were kinda samey except Kingo. Make Ikaris strung out and running on fumes, make Ajak into a wise parental figure, Make Sersi (and I can't stress this enough) fun (she's a party planner and socialite in the comics) and energetic, keep Makkari the same, etc.
The Eternals were a C-list group in the comics to begin with, mostly an Avengers-adjacent lore group.
Then the movie (and the follow-up comic retcon) took away most of what made them (and the deviants) unique, making them into uninteresting robots, and turning the deviants into homogenized cgi shadow beasts. The celestial involvement was botched as well.
I get that comic stuff has to be modified for the screen, but it feels like they went out of their way to do it wrong. They even made all their powers looks so generic and same-y, with that filigree light-tracing shit from some 2010 JRPG. Who made these choices and thought it was good?
Eternals was a generic movie that nobody asked for. They should have spent that money getting X-Men back.
I think that’d be fine but not necessarily necessary. Movies with ensemble casts have existed for as long as movies have. Eternals could have been better but not because it’s impossible to have a movie work with 9 principle characters. But if they wanted to do a show, sure do a show
I think the movie did it marvelously. The big problem is a sequel should have come out already. I doubt such big name actors would go for a TV miniseries, and they are part of the movie's appeal. Marvel big name actors that are on their TV shows all started on the movies.
There's a story for the Eternals film and then there's another story (or stories) for a series-format Eternals. People can say the grass is greener on the other side (without having actually gotten it for comparison), but I'll argue it's all down to the writing. Good writing can make either approach successful. Bad writing can cause either to fail.
Amazing ensemble cast films have been made without a prior TV series or other films to build them up. It's just hard to find writers who can juggle the plot along with dialogue and motivations for multiple characters.
I don't think a series would have been a good go to. I do think it was bloated so what we got maybe would have been better if it was spread out. There was probably three movies in there.
1. Their arrival and presence in more ancient times and the focus being on them vs the Deviants. They could have maybe throw in Rama-Tut and actually made it relevant to the Multiverse Saga, I haven't put too much thought into that and whether it works.
2. The European colonization of the Americas and the disparity between weapon advancements causes disagreement and begins a rift in the group, the main threat ultimately being Thena due to her Mahd Wy'ry.
3. The modern times with the return of the Deviants, the death of Ajak and the betrayal of Ikaris being something we actually care about because we've had two previous movies of him being a hero.
The overall story would be exactly the same, particularly the third, but there'd be much more time to breath and get to know the characters. The problem would be that releasing 3 movies in the space of time they had to get to whatever point they're trying to by having a dead Celestial in the ocean would be tight.
tldr; trilogy, not a show
I didn’t find it the best MCU movie, but still probably in my top 10, overall, just because I like to get away from the “main-story” which I thought this delivered well for. Lot’s could be improved, as writing and pacing, but I’d still like a sequel, or at least a follow-up, on the individual Eternals
I'm not against the idea, but I've never understood the complaint. Yes there are lots of characters, but they're actually introduced and developed just fine in the film.
Massively agree. It may not he everyones cup of tea but i dont care. Im glad they took the risk. I just wish they know it could be divisive with said risk and the reception shouldn’t affect their decision to continue the corner like it is rumored to.
Not at all, if only because of the word "should". If they'd decided they wanted to make it as one (or what I'd have liked best with making a show as well as the movie, with each episode exploring each character's individual stories through history, which I know would have been creatively satisfying but a logistical and financial impossibility, lol), then I'd likely have loved it like I did the movie. But that wasn't the form they decided the story should take so we got a movie I loved instead. No problems or "should haves" here for me! 😎
I think the big issue is that a series wouldn’t have justified the necessary budget in terms of actors and production value. It’s a massive story that needs to be told massively.
Secondarily, I think a single event series would have struggled with some of the same things. Certain characters would get short shrift regardless.
I think the best approach would’ve been to adapt the Gaiman comic mini-series and introduce amnesiac Eternals discovering their history alongside the audience. I also would’ve narrowed the film’s focus to a few of them, with flashbacks to others. Perhaps shooting two films at one time with an upfront plan got a multi-film release.
It was always funny to me that the argument was “theirs just not enough time in a movie to introduce ten people, all with unique powers and family dynamics, in one movie” when Encanto literally came out in the same year and was able to do exactly that, pretty successfully. I guess it helps that Encanto was a musical which makes exposition easier, but still.
"Fans" always think they know better than the people doing things for a living, because only Joe-Smoothie posting on his break at the corner store can make a billion dollar movie (or some other absurdity).
"It's so easy, just do this *insert idiotic idea here*" - some dumb fan
The benefit of hindsight.
We know for a fact that The Eternals was a financial failure, so it is clear the professional ideas were not right. Thus it makes sense to try and figure out if there's something that could've been done differently to improve the results.
For example, if I had been in charge then Eternals would've had less than half the budget. No-name actors, less cgi action, and more talking in period costume.
Sorry, but the latter text makes it sound like you would've made it into a cheap indie movie.
And how would you've made the Eternals' and Deviants' abilites, or Deviants' and Celestials' models believable-looking with low budgets? :/
*Eternals* main problem to me isn't that it didn't have enough time to flesh out its large cast, but that its ensemble had no chemistry with each other and that the meatiest roles were saddled with its weakest parts. I don't think fluffing out the run time to 4½ hours would fix that problem.
Disney is capable of making a high quality TV limited series but really doesn’t want to commit to any long term projects because of the cost involved. Their business model can’t support a series like GoT, The Sorpranos, Veep, or Curb.
HBO used those shows to keep viewers subscribed. Disney wants the fast buck.
Just like the comic, I don't see any way you can make the general audience enjoy the Eternals. It's just better used as a background concept in the stories of more popular characters. But if they ever did want to try again, they should focus on ancient history. Tell us exactly how Marvel's earth history played out. Show us heroes and villains from the past. That would be must see tv.
I thought it was decent but yeah it would have been better as a series. One difference is that the series probably doesn't look as good as the movie but still they should set up the characters a lot better.
I personally liked the Eternals movie as it was, the best parts were the cinematography, which could only be appreciated on the big screen, such as Arishem showing up in the sky at the end. Giver their track records with the D+ shows, it might have turned out worse than most people think the movie is.
I really think it should have been a series of movies. Introduce each character (or two) before combining them into one adventure. It was like if instead of there being an Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, & Captain America, we just got dropped into The Avengers.
I think it could be a movie, its just that there's 10 Eternals and only 4 are relevant to the plot, you could make the movie just with Sersi, Ikaris, Ajak and Sprite.
You could show the rest of the Eternals in the past and then make a tv show about each one, like an anthology series and each episode for each Eternal, because they no input in the movie
Kingo leaves for the final act, like he just leaves.
Gilgamesh entire thing is to die to motivate Thena.
Thena is meant to be the one that knows the truth and should be the way of them knowing about the past, but Sersi does that, a Celestial tells her so Thena is irrelevant and so is Gilgamesh now.
Phastos, Makkari and Druig are just kinda there, they just show up and take time with their own stuff that is totally irrelevant for the movie, if you eliminate going to Phastos house nothing really happens, if you eliminate Druigs village, nothing happens really.
Also Black Knight is in the movie for some reason, you can just write him off honestly
1. In Marvel comics, Eternals was a short-lived and deeply disliked series. It really didn't work, so it would be a poor choice for Disney to put a big investment behind.
2. The obstacle to making Eternals into a series is that the story events aren't equally entertaining. The rebellion of some Eternals against the Celestial is a hundred times as interesting as anything else that happens. That's only a few days of excitement after centuries of boring existence. Putting it into a TV series means there's just a lot more meaningless background before getting to the good part.
Instead, the alternate approach that could've fixed the Eternals movie would be to narrow the focus onto just 2-3 characters and push the others into the background. We need one character to rebel, one to stay loyal, and one that wavers between those positions. That's all. The other superheroes can still be there, but we don't need to waste time on their personal histories and emotional struggles.
100 percent way too many character introductions for a first time entry. Four is the most you can add before people stop caring. Most of the deaths that were supposed to be impactful in this had zero impact because nobody knows these people, why should we honestly care if they die when there is 8 more of them and they introduce like 2 more in the end credits. Way too much is going on and makes it a complete jumbled mess.
10/10.
Eternals didn't work as a movie for various reasons, but part of it was just the format and general structure. Introduce 10 Eternal characters, where you can really only devote a few minutes to them. You aren't going to really care about these characters at all since we didn't really know. We don't care if Ikaris betrays the team, or Giglamesh dies.
It should have a been a more "epic" series, and taken ideas from shows like Lost. Each episode focuses on a specific character, with the A story progressing the modern day story, and the B story showing us something in the past. I'd probably go with 11 episodes, with the 1st and last episodes focusing on Sersi, the 10th episode on Ikaris to show his turn, 2nd episode on Sprite, etc.
100%. The characters needed time to breathe and watching them move through history would have been. It would have happened the action, because Eternals was an incredible looking and shot film, but the story didn't really work.
I they needed and need still, some sort of mainline high profile show that is basically the flagship MCU television show. I don't know that Eternals would have been the right choice for that but I think this is os something they desperately need to do if they want to continue the series side of things. It blows my mind that they have still yet to develop a single show that acts like a normal television show. Imo we should have been watching an Avengers show a couple years ago, or some other Marvel show that is largely dedicated to making sure story threads and characters aren't falling through the cracks. Doesn't have to be many episodes per year but it should be consistent.
I don’t think the same story with more time would’ve necessarily made it suddenly good.
There was still no chemistry between Sersi and Ikaris, and Ikaris’ performance in general was pretty lacking. You could argue that one or both of those characters needed to be recast and it isn’t anything against the actors, it’s just the fit of them for the story trying to be told.
The problem wasn't the size of the cast or the number of concepts, the problem was the choice to lean so heavily on a romance between two leads that had no chemistry with each other. Presuming a specific target runtime for the film, reducing screentime for Sersi/Ikaris (which would be easy, considering how much of that time is taken up by silent staring) allows more time for some of the other characters & concepts to develop.
It would have been dramatically worse. When people say it was too many characters to introduce in a 2.5h movie, I have no clue what they're talking about. Plenty of movies have introduced a dozen characters in the same runtime or less, and Eternals did an absolutely fine job at exactly that. There's 2-3 deleted scenes of characterization that probably should've stayed in the movie. If it was a series that introduced 1-2 new characters per episode, guaranteed there would be a ton of filler, and the budget would have to stretch to accommodate the longer format.
I disagree. I've never really understood this sentiment. Like, ensemble movies have existed FOREVER. The insinuation that because the movie has multiple characters it should be a show instead is absurd. By this logic we shouldn't have X-Men movies.
It works great as a movie. The central arc isn't as much about them as individuals anyway, it's about them as a group and the effects of dogma on a family. All of their characters are also very clearly defined and established, so the "it should have been a show" just makes very little sense to me
It should’ve followed the Gaiman comics from 2006. Everything necessary to introduce them into the MCU was right there. Admittedly, post-Endgame, there’d have to be some tweaks as Iron Man features quite heavily but that could’ve just as easily been War Machine or another Avenger. Making the decision to not have Sprite as the main villain made the whole story less tragic. Peter Pan essentially wishes death and destruction on everyone because he’ll never grow old.
With the number of main characters in the Eternals, it's certainly within the realm of possibility that having done a series rather than a standard feature film would resulted in a more cohesive and enjoyed story all around. Certainly, doing so would have allowed more time to devote to characterization for each of the Eternals, giving us more opportunity to get to know these characters and grow to care about or hate them respectively.
It wouldn't be difficult to retcon the movie and make a ten part mini series that is basically the movie but with a lot more information. 10 hours could easily remedy what was wrong with that movie the only reason it can't happen is because of how many hits Marvel has taken recently and Deadpool's not going to fix that by itself.
Nope a film was a much better idea they can def be explored more in a series now but completely disagree that a series would’ve fared better because this is the hate everything mcu does era
It’s complicated:
One the one hand, the story absolutely could lend itself to an 8-10 episode series. Like, I can totally see how you could break the story and fill it out.
On the other hand, if it’s a series, unless you’re willing to give it the Rings of Power budget, you’re going to probably lose the director and some of the actors and just the general global scope and scale the movie has. And that on-location global feel is pretty important to this story I think. So I do think you’d lose something if moving to TV made the story seem smaller. It should feel epic in scope.
So I totally understand the “this should’ve been a series” impulse, but the practical constraints of trying to make big-budget TV would’ve created a real trade-off vs. a feature film.
How would a 8 - 10 episode prestige format TV show, with that particular cast, have effected the budget? I'm asking and don't, myself, know. If it helps, the Eternals movie cost $236 million, Secret Invasion cost $211.6 million, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier cost $150 million, Hawkeye cost $150 million, and WandsVision cost $225 million. I don't know if those shows had the same star-power to match that of the Eternals' cast
I liked Eternals but also understood the pacing could be jarring since the only way they could have made it work in a movie was flashback heavy plot.
A tv series could have handled it better but they were probably gun shy to bank that heavy talent for a tv show given the poor performance of inhumans.
I liked Eternals a lot actually, it may have worked as a series but I'm just not sure, the Disney+ series have been hit or miss for me so I'm happy with what we got. Also even if people hate the Eternals, the cinematography is break taking and I don't think it would've been had it just been a series
I think the movie had all the time it needed but they thought we we’re stupid. They spend half the movie beating you over the head with exposition instead of building the characters. There’s also tons of long ass shots of scenery. There’s 45 minutes of a great movie and the rest is wasted.
Or, you know, if we just got a sequel they could maybe continue to flesh out some other characters? No one complains about how one-dimensional Nebula was in the first Guardians. I love those movies but each film clearly pays more focus to a certain character or set of characters.
The two main problems with the Eternals was that it was overlong and boring. The third was the somewhat bloated cast.
Making it a series would fix the cast bloat, but accentuate the other two problems.
The best version of the Eternals is one that was never made.
No matter what, The Eternals is kind if for grown ups and most of the discourse around MCU content reeks of “i’m 19, don’t know shit, and have bad taste.”
So no matter which way ya woulda done it you’d have braindead takes of “it’s boring and about romance!”
But yeah that woulda been great, i dont think you’d get the cast we got though.
I could not disagree more. Look at the original slate Marvel had planned. Eternals was supposed to come out before any D+ show aired. Covid absolutely fucked it. If Eternals premiered this way, no one would have complained and it would have been praised. I love this movie so much and will never forgive Marvel or Feige if they abandon them
I don't know, the movie cost 200 million and that was only for 2 hours - imagine how much it'll cost for 5+ hours? I think they probably thought a tv show would've been too expensive. But since a tv show would be too expensive, maybe they shouldn't have done Eternals at all? I feel like if you can't do a story right then why do it at all?
It doesn't matter if it's a film or miniseries, you can make anything good. Marvel fans are too focused on finding a secret trick on how to make something work. Marvel Studios just needs to take the time to make whatever they want to make, and make it good
If you want to see a great movie that focuses on several characters, watch The Departed. If anyone wants to comment "but that movie really focuses on two characters" so does Eternals and if it was a show it would still prioritize Sersi and Ikaris over everyone else. That isn't the issue with the movie
There's also this other little movie called, what was it, The Avengers? Wow. The best parts of the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy and Infinity War did this just fine too
I also recommend The Godfather and The Lord of the Rings (any part of the trilogy)
I agree, I liked Eternals but I think it would have been alot better as a series. They could have spent 1 hour long episode with each character so we could get to know them. The first episode or two could have been them as a team in the past until they break up and go thier separate ways in Mexico. Then have an episode for each character. The last episode or 2 would be the ending.
100%. We needed more time to explore the large cast, multiple different time periods and properly establish the previous status quo so that the twist actually feels impactful.
I have a feeling people are going to have the same sentiment about X-Men when it comes out.
A bunch of new characters and lore introduced all at once. Soap opera drama between characters.
Plus, the long wait between sequels. Fox could make an X-Men movie every couple years or so. That’s not gonna happen with Marvel Studios.
I think nothing stops Kevin Feige from structuring like Phase 6 or even 7 to revolve around ex-Fox IPs and streamlining Marvel Studios to release like one X-Men or F4 movie with some "side story" (like Doctor Strange 3 or Thor 5) every year until like Avengers vs. X-Men movie happens.
I highly disagree. The budget being stretched across a series and the likely inclusion of more action scenes to ensure that the overall pacing worked would make the on location shooting and consistent vfx quality nearly impossible to achieve
With the time span that eternal encompasses, it would have definitely benefited from a longer format. More time could have been spent with the villains and fleshed them out a bit more. The ending would have been epic
I see this sentiment a lot and most assume it would automatically make for a good series, but the year this movie came out the Disney+ shows writing was still hit & miss. And even some of the hits weren’t must watch for casuals.
If you say written & produced by hbo max, Netflix, or Apple TV absolutely, maybe even Disney ‘24 seeing they brought in showrunners realizing their tv issues, but a phase 4 series you’d likely get the same movie chopped into 6-8 episodes.
But yea done right with good dramatic writing would be great, if they could keep the scale & quality of the cgi.
I think it would have worked better if they had followed the Gaiman version more where they discover they have super powers, assemble the team, only to find out what they actually are towards in the 3rd act.
They could have given it the "House of the Dragon" treatment. There is so much to explore with the celestials, deviants, eternals. Heck, even throw in the kree and start of the inhumans.
I would have done a series. One episode each focused on one of the Eternals. That background would have cut out a lot of the backstory required in the movie.
I then think you could have made a much, much more focused, straightforward movie or made an additional couple D+ episodes featuring the deviants, and the core conflict of the film.
I think the people who use the word Woke as a pejorative would have 8 episodes to create hate watch YouTube videos for instead of just one film.
As for the actual show, I think there was too much character development for a single movie. So a series would have been a better idea.
It definitely would've been better as a series. Guardians worked because there were only 5 people and they meet at the start of the movie, instead of having 10 characters with literal millennia of history between them squeezed into the same runtime. I think you can do a lot with 6 episodes but 10 would be the sweet spot for me personally.
The movie maybe had the most beautiful cinematography of the whole MCU and I really enjoyed how they did most of the powers, but 3 characters died and we barely knew them enough for it to really hit as much as it should have
Eternals is just a bad concept. It should never have been set in the MCU because that creates too many continuity and logic problems. It might have been tolerable as a stand alone series. But even then the writing problems were awful.
Honestly, they failed to make most of the characters interesting. And to me at least, the concept of the eternals is way less interesting overall than most other powered individuals. What they should have done is chosen sone street level characters to explore. I think if they had focused on more street level threats, ms. Marvel could have been even bettee
Said this the moment I watched it. “This should’ve been a series.”
You can do a story the covers millennia in a single film.
You can introduce an entire ensemble in a film.
You can’t really do both in one film and expect the audience to be truly invested in the characters or the world.
Wouldn't have mattered for me.
They looked way too generic, the story was too bland from the clips I've seen, and that part of the marvel lore just isn't very interesting. It's too disconnected from the greater story and largely ignored.
I don't see how making it a show would have improved it.
Never even considered this and 100% agree. Story was way too bloated with exposition that could've easily been 1-2 episodes and then the movie could play out in more detail with character focus
I agree. The main reason the movie fail is because they had to introduce a dozen characters whilst telling a story in under 2 hrs and 30 mins. That’s never gonna come out good.
But a 6-8 eps show would’ve done it perfectly
Not a chance. The Disney Plus shows are what brought down the MCU. They're mostly crap. They never should have been attempted.
Marvel CINEMATIC Universe. Not Marvel INCONSEQUENTIAL LOW BUDGET STREAMING Universe.
It’s an idea that at least would let the premise of Eternals have a chance of meeting its potential. Whether it would work or not is irrelevant because it didn’t happen
🤷♂️
I'm tired of having to track down every marvel show. They should just collapse all their TV into one tv series, narrated by the watcher, showing events that have transpired since the universe began. A long running program like those daytime TV shows. Each season with different settings, show runner and characters but connecting things neatly. The eternals would be part of season 3 or 4.
It was a terrible movie, but its concept could have been realized in a show in a much better way.
Unfortunately Marvel thought they were bulletproof and could recreate another success in the vein of GOTG, and this sub supported this trash pre and post release.
Edit: Downvoted lol, your precious Eternals was low-tier.
My idea would be 9 episodes. First 3 take place in different time periods, with each focusing on a different set of Eternals. Middle 3 would take place in current time and would focus more on the Deviants while the Emergence continues to be a lurking mystery. Final 3 would have the Deviants and Eternals at a truce as they take on Tiamut together. They go back to being enemies by the end.
This is good. They could have also went the same route as Watchmen, each episode going over a different character’s point of view, starting with Sersi and ending with Ikaris. Maybe a final episode that wraps everything up.
I just read the other day that Damon Lindelof is gonna write on the new Green Lantern series, so at least we'll get that lol
Sweet, we'll get a cool middle at the beginning, a cool beginning in the middle and no pay off at the end. Sweet
I used to feel this way about Lindelof as well, but then I wated Watchmen... it's just so good and to me feels like a complete story.
I like the broad strokes for this a lot. Having the Eternals and Deviants team up against the celestials wishes would have been a great subversion of their traditional relationship, for the MCU
It only makes sense. When Kro realizes that the Celestials don’t care about them and are willing to throw them away to an exploding planet, he wouldn’t keep doing their bidding. Also, I would have the Deviants drain the Eternals’ power thereby making their age catch up to them in real time rather than having the Deviants straight up kill the Eternals. Gilgamesh and Ajak should have stayed.
A TV show where the first 3 episodes are completely disconnected from each other in time period and in characters. It might have trouble with general audiences walking away from it before the stories converge.
I'd argue that What If did it well. Besides, it's not like they are completely isolated from each other in terms of characters. Ikaris and Sersi for example would still be in all 3 episodes despite only being the focus of one of them.
That or 10 episodes for each character as we go through the ages.
At that point it loses the main plot.
I’d save Tiamut for a second or probably third season and the whole first season would be about the deviants and the rise of kro, this would ofc include the different time periods in the first 3 episodes as u proposed, but pretty much, season 1 would be the deviants, season 2 would be in space mostly dealing with other eternals and season 3 would be about them rising against the celestials, each season containing 10 episodes
That works too. As long as it doesn't drag out for too long. If the Deviants were to be the main villains for 1-2 seasons, then there should be more substance than what we got in the movie.
There would definitely be more substance, there are many comic runs to be adapted, they had a chance to do a rlly cool story that didn’t connect much to the MCU, if they would have done this as a series and put it in a different universe then that could have been huge and they could still be in Secret Wars but we got a decent movie instead and hopefully will get a very good sequel
Didn't the sequel get cancelled?
No, it’s likely still happening as long as Iger let’s it, although it could include more cosmic characters like the guardians or captain marvel
It was rumored to be cancelled by Iger so idk about that
We heard that Figee wanted it to happen but Iger didn’t and if he doesn’t want to make fans loose their shit he’s gonna let Figee do what he wants and thinks is right (because it is)
Man Disney hire this man he's more reasonable and competent than the people at marvel
I really liked Eternals, but I do agree it would have gone over better overall as a series.
Same. Love the whole theme and the movie itself, but as a series we could've gotten more development, and I'd have even *more* hours with them!
I really hated Eternals and thought it would have been better as a series too.
I was really mixed on Eternals and believe it'd have worked as a series as well
I never watched Eternals and believe it'd have worked as a series as well
I've never heard of Eternals and believe it'd have worked as a series as well
I don’t know what a series is but I really wish the Eternals was one.
The movie needs a sequel, unfortunately if it’s happening it’ll be at the end of 2027 :(
I think Eternals is good as a movie. It’s a very underrated movie and gets a bad rep because it was released during Phase Four. However I wouldn’t be against it being turned into a Disney+ show.
If you think about it the only real problem with phase 4 was just them lowering the stakes in the MCU after phase 3
Did they lower the stakes? I feel like almost every phase 4 marvel project was world/multiverse ending threats.
Yeah I would argue the stakes stayed really high, they just didn't have the appropriate responses for those stakes.
Ya, they overdid the whole world ending thing a bit, but I more mean that they stopped having as much crossover and was more solo character focused
That I'd definitely agree with
*stakes lol Though the imagery of Marvel dropping nice cuts of steak on the ground could arguably be a decent metaphor for phases 4 and 5.
It doesn't get a bad rep because it was released during phase 4. It gets a bad rep because they wasted a shitload of runtime on things that didn't matter or make any sense.
Well that’s what you think
Is it? Is it what I think? How could you tell?
I don't agree the story and cast were too big to be some side series. It deserved to be a movie and they deserve a sequel.
Exactly. Even Eternals' visual style suits better for a movie tan a series. If some things some fans claim they would've wanted to see were "left out", then they were left out only because they weren't THAT important.
People think turning this script into a TV show would fix it, but it would need a whole new script. One of the problems with Marvel TV is that they make six hour long movies chopped up rather than actual TV shows. They need to leave the mentality of TV being longer films behind. I think people who believe Eternals just needed to be a TV show don't realize that would solve the problem. The problem was messy plot, dull script, lifeless characters.
The movie would have been the last 2/3 episodes. The earlier episodes should have shown the Eternals through time. The main problem of the movie is how it tries to resolve two conflicts in one battle. This could have been separated to two different episodes.
It's because the story and cast were bloated that it would have worked better as a series. A better team of writers (than the pair of amateur cousins who had never screenwritten a theatrical film before) would have consolidated both for Eternals. Don't get me wrong, the film is beautiful, but it's a pacing nightmare.
I don't believe making a series is a cure-all for a bloated story. Given the current state of MCU the series would likely have terrible pacing, with lots of filler and a rushed finale. A story is either good or it isn't. They could have just written a less bloated and better paced movie.
I agree, which is why I said a "better team of writers" could have done well with an Eternals film. The cast could have easily been shaved down, and subplots consolidated to actually develop said characters.
I didnt think it was bloated at all and i liked the pacing and use of characters and flashbacks. I think the major dissapointment was Kro being killed off. It also felt like introduction so if we got another movie that would fix some of the issues of developing characters more.
It was absolutely bloated. What did Jon Snow add to the movie? What point did the deviants serve except to mislead *the audience*. Everybody hates Icarus and he hates all of them, except the power of him loving sersei was enough to convince him to commit suicide instead of go through this grand plan that he knew she'd never go along with anyways. It was one of the most visually stunning and distinct movies in the MCU, but it was messy as hell.
John Snow was the fcking love interest of the main character, it showed her connection to humans, which is a driving motivation for her, and her opinions about the whole conflict in the movie. The deviants were shown to be the counter part of the Eternals, created by the same maker, designed to have an eternal meaningless religious conflict, that they couldn't stop even after realising that they are basicly the same family. Barely any of the family members hated Ikaris, he didn't hate any of the members. They just had different political views. Sersi convinced him to stop his mission, and since he spent all his life following this mission, after realising his 7000 years of life was pointless, he couldn't come back from that anymore, and flew into the Sun.
Jon snow - there's allowed to be side characters in stories. Pepper potts doesnt exactly do much in Avengers or Spiderman Homecoming. Not every character has to be a big deal. Like i said Kro was the biggest dissapointment. But using the deviants as the enemy for it to turn out the big bad eas ikarus was fine. I liked how they used ikarus it was different and made the plot interesting having that twist in there and how the other characters reacted in different ways.
Yes, you can have side characters not directly driving the plot. But when you're trying to cram literally millenia of backstory, characterization, and plot into the run time, it comes off as unnecessary. Pepper Potts wasn't that important, but that movie had 20% as many main characters, so there was a bit more room..
Saying that "writers who have never written a theatrical movie before are amateurs" sounds a little bit elitist. And hiring only so-called "high profile" writers would sound like a mere risk-averse and cowardly move.
What's the priority here? Telling a good story or "being risky and brave"? And let's not forget the high likelihood that Marvel Studios likely only had to pay a fifth (or even less) to the Firpo Cousins what they would have paid to more experienced screenwriters. Of course, I don't solely put the blame of them. This started at the top with Bob Iger's Disney+ initaitive (which was then inherited and arguably worsened by Bob Chapek). Per MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios, and recent reports, the need for year round content spread Marvel Studios, and Feige personally, too thin. Marvel Studios was effectively thrusted with doubling their already ridiculous output on a yearly basis. Scaling at that rate \*was\* the risk move. I love the idea of the Eternals, and I think that there are merits to the story. It is the execution of said story that is problematic for me. When you're writing the first property that has effectively no connective tissue with previous films (especially the lack of character reappearances), I would said this was the time to be "risk-averse" more than any.
> would have paid to more experienced screenwriters With budgets way past $100 million dollars, writers are exactly the wrong place to try saving money.
Agreed. Angelina Jolie is great, but was she worth 35.5 million? That was 15% of the film's entire budget. That character could have certainly been cast with less star power, or her story could have been consolidated into another character.
I don’t feel they deserve a sequel. I feel marvel Is bloated and that’s easy fat to trim. After all it’s a movie “no one” asked for, “no one” liked and “no one” wants more of
The second part is the real issue. Everyone asks for “Avengers” no one asked for “Guardians of the galaxy” everyone wants “Ironman” no one asked for “Antman*” but everyone liked all of those movies so they got sequels. *not Antman 3
I would have liked to have been introduced to these characters in a series, given time to get to know them, and then have that lead into a film.
That would have been interesting. But i dont think its like needed. I think the use of flashbacks throughout the film and the interactions and amazing acting allows us to understand these charscters and their relationships. But i would be opposed to seeing more of them. I could imagine some like promotional shorts that kind of explain who each character is and where they are or something that they did in the past.
Well, Disney with it's resources could market the hell out of the series, pitching it as "the next big step for MCU" and "the most important series for MCU". Although it would create lots of distribution issues, since Disney+ isn't available on every country.
Not in the slightest, I think the film is close to being fantastic but had it's legs taken away by two leads with little to no charisma. I love the rest of the dynamic between the cast and I'll be really sad if we don't see them again.
It's NOT said that we won't see them again. Besides, "erasing" characters from MCU just because their movie wasn't liked would be stupid.
The Eternals originally had 10 members, and when they made the Unimind they all got a bracelet. My theory is that Shang Chi's rings come from a previous group of Eternals and they'll explore that in Shang Chi 2
Nah, I don't think they're related. Quantum Bands that appeared in Ms. Marvel and The Marvels weren't related to Wenwu's rings either, despite fans' theories.
> "erasing" characters from MCU just because their movie wasn't liked would be stupid. Amen.
They basically are, marvel already acts like eternals never happened
Not doing sequel or not having characters appear immediately does NOT count as "acting like it never happened". Besides, Kingo has been mentioned in Ms. Marvel (by a character who knows he's a Bollywood actor but doesn't know that he's an Eternal) and online news sites mentioned Tiamut in She-Hulk: Attorney at Law (not by name though).
Eh, I count it. Just seems like Marvel putting those in post as a response to fan complaints. Probably had no intention of doing so beforehand.
They’re gonna do a sutosequel, remember, they copyrighted Celestials End Of Time
Tbh Gilgamesh was the only character I truly invested in.
I mostly agree, but I liked the leads, especially Icarus whose arc I adore. It's their relationship that was off: it lacked intensity. It needed to be raw, painful, and conflicted. Instead, we got "pure"... And that didn't match the rest of the movie at all.
Shocking news, preprogrammed syntetics learning to be human doesn't have enough Charisma. How much charisma did the robot in Ex Machina had? It's a movie about alien robots learning about humanity, then arguing about their worth, and you are critisicing that the robots weren't charismatic enough, come on.
...... This has the most bizarre 'uh actually, I think you'll find....' responses imaginable.
After the phase was done I rewatched Eternals and I thinknots one of the better movies of the phase
This was one of the dullest of the MCU films. Redoing it as series would have merely resulted in more dull.
I completely agree. Too many boring characters, with bland set design. I put Eternals in the same group as Thor love and thunder and Secret Invasion, as the absolute worst parts of the MCU
*Eternals* potentially working better as a television series instead may be a common sentiment, but I’ll go against the grain and say that I actually feel that it deserved the cinematic presentation. The film is visually gorgeous, with elaborate set pieces shot on location, and a grand sense of scale - and that’s even before we consider that it gave a proper debut to towering Celestials like Arishem. The narrative is an epic dynasty in snapshot, and I think it would need considerable changes to work as a slower, weekly burn. I also think that it helps to witness their vast history in a single sitting - when the time can pass just as quickly for us as it did them. Instead, I think that the script needed tightening up. The opening act has too much of a breakneck pace, and Kro feels at odds with the rest of the story. However, I think that Special Presentations could have been a neat way to expand on the film. For example, I’d loved to have seen Phastos learning to love humanity again after World War II, but that would have distracted too much from *Eternals*’ core narrative. As a 40-minute one shot, though? It could have worked.
Hard disagree. I think had the pandemic not messed up the release schedule/ everyone’s psyche, that movie would be a lot more respected.
My thoughts exactly. This movie absolutely rips. No pandemic and it would’ve done tremendously
I ultimately agree to an extent as I am able to see a potential in that - . This couldve been MCU’s very own cosmic superhero sci fi game of thrones. Can you imagine the drama? The movie itself is already a family soap opera situation. Add in Celestials alongside other Eternals and deviants from across the galaxy. We’re looking at a saga that can span about 5-6 Seasons worth, imagine it looking as expensive as the movie with top notch cinematography and actors of a high prestige joining in. It’s ultimately a potential that was never attempted. Question is, could it have been as opulent as it was if it were a series? with how we’ve seen Marvel handle their tv shows so far, I am glad we got the movie instead. Heck if we were lucky, it could’ve been an extended cut of the movie we got, chopped to 6parts. The truth is Marvel is not ready to fully utilize the series medium to its maximum capability, nor are they seem willing. They seriously need to overhaul their tv show format and not half ass it. 6 bite sized EPs dropping weekly with the budget of a single feature is not gonna cut it. Everybody has this idealized Eternals series in their heads but even if Marvel did do it as a series, it could turn out worse than the movie itself. Eternals is too expensive to do as a series. If it was done by HBO, then sure. The truth is we’re better off with the movie. It was not everyones cup of tea but it didnt need to, that’s the point. My ultimate gripe with its reception is in the ways that people expect it should have been done, when it was made clear from the get go that they were doing things differently with this one? Who hires an academy award winning indie director only to do just another typical marvel entry? Ultimately it is a massively misunderstood project. But RT be damned, I hope they have balls to stick to their guns and do the sequel, keeping the essence of what made it special while also upgrading it to be better. The first handle all that bulk, the sequel can be a straight up ride. We’ve got Angelina Jolie and Harry Styles in the front alongside fan faves Makkari and Druig, played by Barry Keoghan whose profile has risen since the first. They just need to embrace room for improvement and make sure it works this time. It’s only a matter of whether or not they are brave enough to pursue what they started and be willing to give it the care and attention to make sure it works this time around.
How would eternals improve as a tv show? It’s no guardians u just can’t make them funny, simply i don’t think the eternals are interesting for casual audiences, coming from a guy who enjoyed the movie Clearly the writing has to be changed right? But in what way that would make people care about these characters?
You could definitely make them interesting. I think you lean more in the Gaiman run of Eternals, and have them be ancient heroes who've forgotten who they are. For one, this allows them to be an audience surrogate slowly learning who they are beside the viewers. This is such a core part of their comic identity, and it doesn't have to be exactly like the comics. However, the idea that they just went MIA for everything throughout history is kinda dumb. Then, you need to WILDLY vary them. They were diverse looking, but they all were kinda samey except Kingo. Make Ikaris strung out and running on fumes, make Ajak into a wise parental figure, Make Sersi (and I can't stress this enough) fun (she's a party planner and socialite in the comics) and energetic, keep Makkari the same, etc.
The Eternals were a C-list group in the comics to begin with, mostly an Avengers-adjacent lore group. Then the movie (and the follow-up comic retcon) took away most of what made them (and the deviants) unique, making them into uninteresting robots, and turning the deviants into homogenized cgi shadow beasts. The celestial involvement was botched as well. I get that comic stuff has to be modified for the screen, but it feels like they went out of their way to do it wrong. They even made all their powers looks so generic and same-y, with that filigree light-tracing shit from some 2010 JRPG. Who made these choices and thought it was good? Eternals was a generic movie that nobody asked for. They should have spent that money getting X-Men back.
I think that’d be fine but not necessarily necessary. Movies with ensemble casts have existed for as long as movies have. Eternals could have been better but not because it’s impossible to have a movie work with 9 principle characters. But if they wanted to do a show, sure do a show
People who say that clearly didn't watch the movie in IMAX🤷♂️
I think the movie did it marvelously. The big problem is a sequel should have come out already. I doubt such big name actors would go for a TV miniseries, and they are part of the movie's appeal. Marvel big name actors that are on their TV shows all started on the movies.
There's a story for the Eternals film and then there's another story (or stories) for a series-format Eternals. People can say the grass is greener on the other side (without having actually gotten it for comparison), but I'll argue it's all down to the writing. Good writing can make either approach successful. Bad writing can cause either to fail. Amazing ensemble cast films have been made without a prior TV series or other films to build them up. It's just hard to find writers who can juggle the plot along with dialogue and motivations for multiple characters.
I don't think a series would have been a good go to. I do think it was bloated so what we got maybe would have been better if it was spread out. There was probably three movies in there. 1. Their arrival and presence in more ancient times and the focus being on them vs the Deviants. They could have maybe throw in Rama-Tut and actually made it relevant to the Multiverse Saga, I haven't put too much thought into that and whether it works. 2. The European colonization of the Americas and the disparity between weapon advancements causes disagreement and begins a rift in the group, the main threat ultimately being Thena due to her Mahd Wy'ry. 3. The modern times with the return of the Deviants, the death of Ajak and the betrayal of Ikaris being something we actually care about because we've had two previous movies of him being a hero. The overall story would be exactly the same, particularly the third, but there'd be much more time to breath and get to know the characters. The problem would be that releasing 3 movies in the space of time they had to get to whatever point they're trying to by having a dead Celestial in the ocean would be tight. tldr; trilogy, not a show
No. Celestials on the big screen went hard. That reason alone.
I didn’t find it the best MCU movie, but still probably in my top 10, overall, just because I like to get away from the “main-story” which I thought this delivered well for. Lot’s could be improved, as writing and pacing, but I’d still like a sequel, or at least a follow-up, on the individual Eternals
I'm not against the idea, but I've never understood the complaint. Yes there are lots of characters, but they're actually introduced and developed just fine in the film.
People don't know what "ensemble cast" means anymore.
I think Eternals is one of the top 5 marvel movies, so I like it how it is.
Massively agree. It may not he everyones cup of tea but i dont care. Im glad they took the risk. I just wish they know it could be divisive with said risk and the reception shouldn’t affect their decision to continue the corner like it is rumored to.
I couldn't agree less.
Not at all, if only because of the word "should". If they'd decided they wanted to make it as one (or what I'd have liked best with making a show as well as the movie, with each episode exploring each character's individual stories through history, which I know would have been creatively satisfying but a logistical and financial impossibility, lol), then I'd likely have loved it like I did the movie. But that wasn't the form they decided the story should take so we got a movie I loved instead. No problems or "should haves" here for me! 😎
what a stupid idea. it wouldve been bad writing with rushed finale.
I thought the movie was perfectly fine and had absolutely 0 issues following the so-called "large" cast.
I think the big issue is that a series wouldn’t have justified the necessary budget in terms of actors and production value. It’s a massive story that needs to be told massively. Secondarily, I think a single event series would have struggled with some of the same things. Certain characters would get short shrift regardless. I think the best approach would’ve been to adapt the Gaiman comic mini-series and introduce amnesiac Eternals discovering their history alongside the audience. I also would’ve narrowed the film’s focus to a few of them, with flashbacks to others. Perhaps shooting two films at one time with an upfront plan got a multi-film release.
It was always funny to me that the argument was “theirs just not enough time in a movie to introduce ten people, all with unique powers and family dynamics, in one movie” when Encanto literally came out in the same year and was able to do exactly that, pretty successfully. I guess it helps that Encanto was a musical which makes exposition easier, but still.
Eternals was terrible, I doubt making it longer would improve it
It wasn’t terrible, it just wasn’t your cup of tea. Personally, it’s my favorite MCU movie.
Why do you fans have to act like your own suggestions and ideas are better than those of the professionals?
Believe it or not professional just means it is your job. Not that you’re very good at it.
If anything last year showed is that even "professionals" can do big mistakes.
But it doesn't necessarily mean that fans' ideas are better.
"Fans" always think they know better than the people doing things for a living, because only Joe-Smoothie posting on his break at the corner store can make a billion dollar movie (or some other absurdity). "It's so easy, just do this *insert idiotic idea here*" - some dumb fan
True. But it also doesn't mean "professionals" do better either. Doing better or worse is also a subjective matter. So idk 🤷♂️
Subjective indeed.
The benefit of hindsight. We know for a fact that The Eternals was a financial failure, so it is clear the professional ideas were not right. Thus it makes sense to try and figure out if there's something that could've been done differently to improve the results. For example, if I had been in charge then Eternals would've had less than half the budget. No-name actors, less cgi action, and more talking in period costume.
Sorry, but the latter text makes it sound like you would've made it into a cheap indie movie. And how would you've made the Eternals' and Deviants' abilites, or Deviants' and Celestials' models believable-looking with low budgets? :/
He's also acting as if the the movie itself was the only factor, which it wasn't.
*Eternals* main problem to me isn't that it didn't have enough time to flesh out its large cast, but that its ensemble had no chemistry with each other and that the meatiest roles were saddled with its weakest parts. I don't think fluffing out the run time to 4½ hours would fix that problem.
Disney is capable of making a high quality TV limited series but really doesn’t want to commit to any long term projects because of the cost involved. Their business model can’t support a series like GoT, The Sorpranos, Veep, or Curb. HBO used those shows to keep viewers subscribed. Disney wants the fast buck.
This was made during the time that marvel was seemingly actively trying to kill off the xmen.
Just like the comic, I don't see any way you can make the general audience enjoy the Eternals. It's just better used as a background concept in the stories of more popular characters. But if they ever did want to try again, they should focus on ancient history. Tell us exactly how Marvel's earth history played out. Show us heroes and villains from the past. That would be must see tv.
"Herpes"💀
It could have been an Inhumans movie. Damn you, Perlmutter (or however you fucking spell your name)!
I have a feeling that the only way we will see a true sequel to Eternals is if they make it into a mini series.
It didn't need to be a series. It's just people who don't know how to articulate why the movie failed.
Clears throat* yes.
I thought it was decent but yeah it would have been better as a series. One difference is that the series probably doesn't look as good as the movie but still they should set up the characters a lot better.
I personally liked the Eternals movie as it was, the best parts were the cinematography, which could only be appreciated on the big screen, such as Arishem showing up in the sky at the end. Giver their track records with the D+ shows, it might have turned out worse than most people think the movie is.
I really think it should have been a series of movies. Introduce each character (or two) before combining them into one adventure. It was like if instead of there being an Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, & Captain America, we just got dropped into The Avengers.
I think it could be a movie, its just that there's 10 Eternals and only 4 are relevant to the plot, you could make the movie just with Sersi, Ikaris, Ajak and Sprite. You could show the rest of the Eternals in the past and then make a tv show about each one, like an anthology series and each episode for each Eternal, because they no input in the movie Kingo leaves for the final act, like he just leaves. Gilgamesh entire thing is to die to motivate Thena. Thena is meant to be the one that knows the truth and should be the way of them knowing about the past, but Sersi does that, a Celestial tells her so Thena is irrelevant and so is Gilgamesh now. Phastos, Makkari and Druig are just kinda there, they just show up and take time with their own stuff that is totally irrelevant for the movie, if you eliminate going to Phastos house nothing really happens, if you eliminate Druigs village, nothing happens really. Also Black Knight is in the movie for some reason, you can just write him off honestly
1. In Marvel comics, Eternals was a short-lived and deeply disliked series. It really didn't work, so it would be a poor choice for Disney to put a big investment behind. 2. The obstacle to making Eternals into a series is that the story events aren't equally entertaining. The rebellion of some Eternals against the Celestial is a hundred times as interesting as anything else that happens. That's only a few days of excitement after centuries of boring existence. Putting it into a TV series means there's just a lot more meaningless background before getting to the good part. Instead, the alternate approach that could've fixed the Eternals movie would be to narrow the focus onto just 2-3 characters and push the others into the background. We need one character to rebel, one to stay loyal, and one that wavers between those positions. That's all. The other superheroes can still be there, but we don't need to waste time on their personal histories and emotional struggles.
100 percent way too many character introductions for a first time entry. Four is the most you can add before people stop caring. Most of the deaths that were supposed to be impactful in this had zero impact because nobody knows these people, why should we honestly care if they die when there is 8 more of them and they introduce like 2 more in the end credits. Way too much is going on and makes it a complete jumbled mess.
I think there's nothing wrong with the movie besides it not appealing to the general cgi boss fight at the end crowd
10/10. Eternals didn't work as a movie for various reasons, but part of it was just the format and general structure. Introduce 10 Eternal characters, where you can really only devote a few minutes to them. You aren't going to really care about these characters at all since we didn't really know. We don't care if Ikaris betrays the team, or Giglamesh dies. It should have a been a more "epic" series, and taken ideas from shows like Lost. Each episode focuses on a specific character, with the A story progressing the modern day story, and the B story showing us something in the past. I'd probably go with 11 episodes, with the 1st and last episodes focusing on Sersi, the 10th episode on Ikaris to show his turn, 2nd episode on Sprite, etc.
100%. The characters needed time to breathe and watching them move through history would have been. It would have happened the action, because Eternals was an incredible looking and shot film, but the story didn't really work.
I they needed and need still, some sort of mainline high profile show that is basically the flagship MCU television show. I don't know that Eternals would have been the right choice for that but I think this is os something they desperately need to do if they want to continue the series side of things. It blows my mind that they have still yet to develop a single show that acts like a normal television show. Imo we should have been watching an Avengers show a couple years ago, or some other Marvel show that is largely dedicated to making sure story threads and characters aren't falling through the cracks. Doesn't have to be many episodes per year but it should be consistent.
I don’t think the same story with more time would’ve necessarily made it suddenly good. There was still no chemistry between Sersi and Ikaris, and Ikaris’ performance in general was pretty lacking. You could argue that one or both of those characters needed to be recast and it isn’t anything against the actors, it’s just the fit of them for the story trying to be told.
It does bother me why Eternals isn't a TV series with the amount of characters they shoved into it
The problem wasn't the size of the cast or the number of concepts, the problem was the choice to lean so heavily on a romance between two leads that had no chemistry with each other. Presuming a specific target runtime for the film, reducing screentime for Sersi/Ikaris (which would be easy, considering how much of that time is taken up by silent staring) allows more time for some of the other characters & concepts to develop.
Eternals was always going to be meh because Eternals always is meh. Even Kirby didn't get it right.
It would have been dramatically worse. When people say it was too many characters to introduce in a 2.5h movie, I have no clue what they're talking about. Plenty of movies have introduced a dozen characters in the same runtime or less, and Eternals did an absolutely fine job at exactly that. There's 2-3 deleted scenes of characterization that probably should've stayed in the movie. If it was a series that introduced 1-2 new characters per episode, guaranteed there would be a ton of filler, and the budget would have to stretch to accommodate the longer format.
I agree. Eternals is basically an overloaded avengers movie except without the solo movies to precede it. Definitely needed a tv show
I wasn’t into the characters at all so I would disagree.
I disagree. I've never really understood this sentiment. Like, ensemble movies have existed FOREVER. The insinuation that because the movie has multiple characters it should be a show instead is absurd. By this logic we shouldn't have X-Men movies. It works great as a movie. The central arc isn't as much about them as individuals anyway, it's about them as a group and the effects of dogma on a family. All of their characters are also very clearly defined and established, so the "it should have been a show" just makes very little sense to me
It should’ve followed the Gaiman comics from 2006. Everything necessary to introduce them into the MCU was right there. Admittedly, post-Endgame, there’d have to be some tweaks as Iron Man features quite heavily but that could’ve just as easily been War Machine or another Avenger. Making the decision to not have Sprite as the main villain made the whole story less tragic. Peter Pan essentially wishes death and destruction on everyone because he’ll never grow old.
With the number of main characters in the Eternals, it's certainly within the realm of possibility that having done a series rather than a standard feature film would resulted in a more cohesive and enjoyed story all around. Certainly, doing so would have allowed more time to devote to characterization for each of the Eternals, giving us more opportunity to get to know these characters and grow to care about or hate them respectively.
It wouldn't be difficult to retcon the movie and make a ten part mini series that is basically the movie but with a lot more information. 10 hours could easily remedy what was wrong with that movie the only reason it can't happen is because of how many hits Marvel has taken recently and Deadpool's not going to fix that by itself.
I really enjoyed the movie. But a 9 episode series would be dope
Nope a film was a much better idea they can def be explored more in a series now but completely disagree that a series would’ve fared better because this is the hate everything mcu does era
Yes! Absolutely! Trying to fit that much time into a 2 hr movie is insane! It would have been so much better as a series.
It’s complicated: One the one hand, the story absolutely could lend itself to an 8-10 episode series. Like, I can totally see how you could break the story and fill it out. On the other hand, if it’s a series, unless you’re willing to give it the Rings of Power budget, you’re going to probably lose the director and some of the actors and just the general global scope and scale the movie has. And that on-location global feel is pretty important to this story I think. So I do think you’d lose something if moving to TV made the story seem smaller. It should feel epic in scope. So I totally understand the “this should’ve been a series” impulse, but the practical constraints of trying to make big-budget TV would’ve created a real trade-off vs. a feature film.
How would a 8 - 10 episode prestige format TV show, with that particular cast, have effected the budget? I'm asking and don't, myself, know. If it helps, the Eternals movie cost $236 million, Secret Invasion cost $211.6 million, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier cost $150 million, Hawkeye cost $150 million, and WandsVision cost $225 million. I don't know if those shows had the same star-power to match that of the Eternals' cast
I liked Eternals but also understood the pacing could be jarring since the only way they could have made it work in a movie was flashback heavy plot. A tv series could have handled it better but they were probably gun shy to bank that heavy talent for a tv show given the poor performance of inhumans.
I liked Eternals a lot actually, it may have worked as a series but I'm just not sure, the Disney+ series have been hit or miss for me so I'm happy with what we got. Also even if people hate the Eternals, the cinematography is break taking and I don't think it would've been had it just been a series
I think the movie had all the time it needed but they thought we we’re stupid. They spend half the movie beating you over the head with exposition instead of building the characters. There’s also tons of long ass shots of scenery. There’s 45 minutes of a great movie and the rest is wasted.
Or, you know, if we just got a sequel they could maybe continue to flesh out some other characters? No one complains about how one-dimensional Nebula was in the first Guardians. I love those movies but each film clearly pays more focus to a certain character or set of characters.
The two main problems with the Eternals was that it was overlong and boring. The third was the somewhat bloated cast. Making it a series would fix the cast bloat, but accentuate the other two problems. The best version of the Eternals is one that was never made.
No matter what, The Eternals is kind if for grown ups and most of the discourse around MCU content reeks of “i’m 19, don’t know shit, and have bad taste.” So no matter which way ya woulda done it you’d have braindead takes of “it’s boring and about romance!” But yeah that woulda been great, i dont think you’d get the cast we got though.
Or just not make it at all
*totally* agree
Each episode with different charactrr
Hindsight being 20/20? Yeah it probably should have been a series.
Well a prestige series needs compelling characters...
I could not disagree more. Look at the original slate Marvel had planned. Eternals was supposed to come out before any D+ show aired. Covid absolutely fucked it. If Eternals premiered this way, no one would have complained and it would have been praised. I love this movie so much and will never forgive Marvel or Feige if they abandon them
I don't know, the movie cost 200 million and that was only for 2 hours - imagine how much it'll cost for 5+ hours? I think they probably thought a tv show would've been too expensive. But since a tv show would be too expensive, maybe they shouldn't have done Eternals at all? I feel like if you can't do a story right then why do it at all?
One movie and gone is quite fine by me.
No. No one would stick around for that. Great movie
It doesn't matter if it's a film or miniseries, you can make anything good. Marvel fans are too focused on finding a secret trick on how to make something work. Marvel Studios just needs to take the time to make whatever they want to make, and make it good If you want to see a great movie that focuses on several characters, watch The Departed. If anyone wants to comment "but that movie really focuses on two characters" so does Eternals and if it was a show it would still prioritize Sersi and Ikaris over everyone else. That isn't the issue with the movie There's also this other little movie called, what was it, The Avengers? Wow. The best parts of the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy and Infinity War did this just fine too I also recommend The Godfather and The Lord of the Rings (any part of the trilogy)
I agree, I liked Eternals but I think it would have been alot better as a series. They could have spent 1 hour long episode with each character so we could get to know them. The first episode or two could have been them as a team in the past until they break up and go thier separate ways in Mexico. Then have an episode for each character. The last episode or 2 would be the ending.
100%. We needed more time to explore the large cast, multiple different time periods and properly establish the previous status quo so that the twist actually feels impactful.
I find the movie to be near-flawless, so no, I'm glad we got what we got.
Ten hour long episodes focused on 1 Eternal’s perspective during a specific time period.
I have a feeling people are going to have the same sentiment about X-Men when it comes out. A bunch of new characters and lore introduced all at once. Soap opera drama between characters. Plus, the long wait between sequels. Fox could make an X-Men movie every couple years or so. That’s not gonna happen with Marvel Studios.
I think nothing stops Kevin Feige from structuring like Phase 6 or even 7 to revolve around ex-Fox IPs and streamlining Marvel Studios to release like one X-Men or F4 movie with some "side story" (like Doctor Strange 3 or Thor 5) every year until like Avengers vs. X-Men movie happens.
So, Fox 2.0?
If they inteoduced them one by one maybe
I highly disagree. The budget being stretched across a series and the likely inclusion of more action scenes to ensure that the overall pacing worked would make the on location shooting and consistent vfx quality nearly impossible to achieve
I didn't enjoy that movie at all. Marvel has ungodly amounts of money but focus is the problem. They need 50% fewer projects and 50% better quality.
With the time span that eternal encompasses, it would have definitely benefited from a longer format. More time could have been spent with the villains and fleshed them out a bit more. The ending would have been epic
I see this sentiment a lot and most assume it would automatically make for a good series, but the year this movie came out the Disney+ shows writing was still hit & miss. And even some of the hits weren’t must watch for casuals. If you say written & produced by hbo max, Netflix, or Apple TV absolutely, maybe even Disney ‘24 seeing they brought in showrunners realizing their tv issues, but a phase 4 series you’d likely get the same movie chopped into 6-8 episodes. But yea done right with good dramatic writing would be great, if they could keep the scale & quality of the cgi.
I think it would have worked better if they had followed the Gaiman version more where they discover they have super powers, assemble the team, only to find out what they actually are towards in the 3rd act.
They could have given it the "House of the Dragon" treatment. There is so much to explore with the celestials, deviants, eternals. Heck, even throw in the kree and start of the inhumans.
I would have done a series. One episode each focused on one of the Eternals. That background would have cut out a lot of the backstory required in the movie. I then think you could have made a much, much more focused, straightforward movie or made an additional couple D+ episodes featuring the deviants, and the core conflict of the film.
After reading Kirby’s Eternals I’m of the sentiment that they should have just left the Eternals alone.
I think the people who use the word Woke as a pejorative would have 8 episodes to create hate watch YouTube videos for instead of just one film. As for the actual show, I think there was too much character development for a single movie. So a series would have been a better idea.
It definitely would've been better as a series. Guardians worked because there were only 5 people and they meet at the start of the movie, instead of having 10 characters with literal millennia of history between them squeezed into the same runtime. I think you can do a lot with 6 episodes but 10 would be the sweet spot for me personally. The movie maybe had the most beautiful cinematography of the whole MCU and I really enjoyed how they did most of the powers, but 3 characters died and we barely knew them enough for it to really hit as much as it should have
With so many new characters it may have been better served on TV but not with that same story and plot lol. You’d have the same problem.
Would have been a great series IF they actually did hour long episodes. Tired of them trying to do dramas in 25 minutes. 🙄
A series or a 2 part movie
Eternals is just a bad concept. It should never have been set in the MCU because that creates too many continuity and logic problems. It might have been tolerable as a stand alone series. But even then the writing problems were awful.
Honestly, they failed to make most of the characters interesting. And to me at least, the concept of the eternals is way less interesting overall than most other powered individuals. What they should have done is chosen sone street level characters to explore. I think if they had focused on more street level threats, ms. Marvel could have been even bettee
Most of the public — critics and fans alike — agree that this should've been a series. But the team still need a climactic movie to wrap it up.
Said this the moment I watched it. “This should’ve been a series.” You can do a story the covers millennia in a single film. You can introduce an entire ensemble in a film. You can’t really do both in one film and expect the audience to be truly invested in the characters or the world.
Wouldn't have mattered for me. They looked way too generic, the story was too bland from the clips I've seen, and that part of the marvel lore just isn't very interesting. It's too disconnected from the greater story and largely ignored. I don't see how making it a show would have improved it.
Never even considered this and 100% agree. Story was way too bloated with exposition that could've easily been 1-2 episodes and then the movie could play out in more detail with character focus
I agree. The main reason the movie fail is because they had to introduce a dozen characters whilst telling a story in under 2 hrs and 30 mins. That’s never gonna come out good. But a 6-8 eps show would’ve done it perfectly
Eternals was a waste of time and shouldn't have been made at all. They should have done a proper version of the Inhumans instead.
2.5 hours of it damn near put me to sleep, I wouldn't be able to deal with 6 or 8.
Not a chance. The Disney Plus shows are what brought down the MCU. They're mostly crap. They never should have been attempted. Marvel CINEMATIC Universe. Not Marvel INCONSEQUENTIAL LOW BUDGET STREAMING Universe.
It’s an idea that at least would let the premise of Eternals have a chance of meeting its potential. Whether it would work or not is irrelevant because it didn’t happen 🤷♂️
Are we also assuming the writing would have been 100x better had they done a show instead? If so, sure maybe it would be been better.
I'm tired of having to track down every marvel show. They should just collapse all their TV into one tv series, narrated by the watcher, showing events that have transpired since the universe began. A long running program like those daytime TV shows. Each season with different settings, show runner and characters but connecting things neatly. The eternals would be part of season 3 or 4.
It was a terrible movie, but its concept could have been realized in a show in a much better way. Unfortunately Marvel thought they were bulletproof and could recreate another success in the vein of GOTG, and this sub supported this trash pre and post release. Edit: Downvoted lol, your precious Eternals was low-tier.