The brand new trailer for Eternals is here and it’s major.
Directed by Chloé Zhao, who recently won an Academy Award for her work on Nomadland, Marvel’s latest blockbuster follows the Eternals – an immortal alien race created by the Celestials – who have shaped the fate of humanity and civilisation.
For more than 7,000 years they’ve quietly existed in the background, but following the events of Avengers: Endgame they reunite to protect humanity from their threatening counterparts, the Deviants.
Angelina Jolie, Richard Madden, Salma Hayek, Gemma Chan, Kit Harrington, Kumail Nanjiani, Barry Keoghan, Lauren Ridloff, and Ma Dong-seok make up the incredible ensemble cast.
Atlanta’s Brian Tyree Henry also stars as Phastos, who will make history as the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s first openly gay male superhero. He will be joined by Haaz Sleiman, who will play his on-screen husband.
The final trailer opens with Hayek’s character Ajak discussing the actions of Thanos, which resulted in half of the universe’s population being wiped out.
“Five years ago, Thanos erased half of the population of the universe, but the people of this planet brought everyone back with the snap of a finger,” she ominously tells Madden’s Ikaris. “The sudden return of the population provided the necessary energy for the emergence to begin.”
After Ikaris asks her, “How long do we have?” she responds, “Seven days.”
You can watch the action-packed final trailer here or below.
Although there’s been hints of queer representation in the MCU before with director Joe Russo’s miniscule character in Endgame and Loki’s recent conversation about his bisexuality, Eternals will provide viewers with the first instance of some significant LGBTQ+ visibility in the franchise.
Eternals follows in the footsteps of Black Widow, which saw Scarlett Johansson reprise her role as Avenger Natasha Romanoff for one final outing. Despite the film’s hybrid release around the world in theatres and Disney+, it has become the highest-grossing film of 2021 in the United States.
Next month will also see the release of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, which marks Marvel’s first film with an Asian lead.