By Elliot Kung ‘25, Arts and Entertainment Staff Writer

Image courtesy of Sarah Whitten, CNBC

In Marvel Studios’ latest film Eternals, director Chloé Zhao showcases an all-star cast of diverse actors and actresses to tell the untold stories of ten new heroes. Throughout the movie, the audience grows attached to each hero and the new abilities they bring into the Marvel Universe. Despite the harsh reviews from critics, Marvel’s Eternals is still a beautiful story of these ten heroes and their plan to save the earth from imploding. Instead of creating one villain to focus on throughout the film, Zhao focuses on the relationships between each character, and how they evolve and interact with one another. 

 Instead of having the common “good guys against bad guys” trope, Eternals plays on love and romantic feelings to tell a tale of love unlike the generic superhero romance.  The Eternals is a super team of immortal sentient beings with different powers. The leader, Ajak (Salma Hayek), has the power to heal her teammates in their times of need. Ikaris (Richard Madden) is a flying superhero who can shoot energy beams out of his eyes, and his romantic interest, Sersi (Gemma Chan) can manipulate any matter to her liking. The comedic relief, Kingo (Kumail Nanjiani) shoots lasers out of his fingers, and always has a quick quip to relieve the audience with humor. Gilgamesh (Ma Dong-Seok) and Thena (Angelina Jolie) work closely together as best friends. Gilgamesh has superhuman strength, while Thena can create weapons of light out of thin air. Phastros (Brian Tyree Henry), is a gay hero who can create large structures and innovations. The youngest of the group, Sprite (Lia McHugh), remains a child forever, and she can create illusions to trick enemies into letting their guard down. The fastest Eternal, Makkari (Lauren Ridloff), can run at speeds no other Marvel hero has been able to do before. She is also deaf but can communicate with fellow Eternals through sign language. The final Eternal, Druig (Barry Keogan), can manipulate other people’s minds, proving to be a scary but powerful addition to the team. With this cast, we can see the effort Marvel Studios is making to create a more diverse universe on the big screen. At times during the film, the movie seems to drone on in simply introducing characters, and telling the traits of the characters instead of showing the character traits. Certain members of the audience dislike this aspect of the movie, but I personally appreciate other aspects, such as the settings and interactions between the characters.

In addition to having a diverse cast and crew, Marvel’s Eternals is the first Marvel movie to show an open LGBTQ+ relationship: between Phatros and his husband. With these new additions, Eternals is paving the way for new superheroes with different and diverse backgrounds. Other films such as Shang Chi and the Legends of the Ten Rings have also held the spotlight on superheroes of a different culture. However, Eternals is a team of many cultures and races, instead of one certain race throughout the entire movie. This idea of many cultures in one team will hopefully be applied to movies in the future. With the release of Eternals, the movie industry is one more step closer to being more friendly towards those of other cultures and backgrounds. Adding LGBTQ+ and deaf characters gives more depth and authenticity to the movie. With new superheroes of different races, we are given new heroes to look up to, heroes that do not necessarily have blonde hair and blue eyes. Overall, Marvel Studios’ Eternals gives us the deserved introduction of a new, diverse superhero family, and gives us hope that this will not be the final movie to bring together multiple cultures in one team.