While the Marvel Studios narrative generally goes: an unimpeachable run at the box-office and with critics until 2023’s flop “The Marvels,” a closer inspection of the whole story arguably shows chinks starting to show in the armor during the pandemic. While it’s unfair to compare the box office of pandemic-era movies like “Shang Chi” and “Black Widow” to their non-pandemic counterparts, one film that seemed to take it in the teeth, regardless, was Chloe Zhao’s “Eternals” (read our review here). At the time, the film featured the lowest-rated Rotten Tomatoes score of any Marvel film (it has a 47% score, only “Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania,” with a 46% score is lower). In short, one could argue if Marvel is wobbling currently, or had a bad 2023 anyhow, much of their problems arguably started with “Eternals” (which yes, was also the lowest-grossing film of their pandemic movies domestically).
Plenty of unsubstantiated rumors have circled that a planned “Eternals 2” film has been scrapped (and, to be fair, it was never announced). And while Kit Harington (“Game Of Thrones”), who starred in “Eternals,” and we spoke to this week for his new crime movie, “Blood For Dust,” couldn’t confirm those details, he also certainly hasn’t heard a word about more movies or stories following his character or The Eternals.
Harington stars as Dane Whitman in “Eternals,” a character in the Marvel comics who eventually becomes the hero The Black Knight. And when asked if we’ll see more Whitman and more “Eternals,” he basically said nothing is currently being planned or moving forward at the moment (at least that he knows about, anyhow).
“I have always been intrigued by that character, and it’s one of the main reasons I came into ‘The Eternals’—the character,” he explained. “For anyone who knows the Black Knight, his descent because of his superpower—I think it’s a brilliant allegory about addiction and things, and I think it’s a really cool character and a really cool story that they haven’t mined yet. But I don’t know whether they will.”
“Like, honestly, I’ve heard nothing about any sort of plans,” he continued. “And I know they would always keep their plans close to their chest. But at the moment, again, on that front, nothing going on.”
Asked whether he’d like to reprise the character in a Disney+ series or a movie, Harington suggested it would depend on the material, but he seems to be up for more if Marvel ever gets around to it.
“I don’t know, to be honest,” he said. “I wouldn’t know until I got shown what the plan was, if there was a plan. So I think it’s a sort of strange, murky area now, TV and film. I don’t know. But both could be the right thing or the wrong thing. But I think that the character is there and the story is there to do something really interesting with.”
Clearly Harington would love to explore more of the Black Knight, the character doesn’t even fully evolve into the hero in “Eternals,” his possibilities only teased. However, with Marvel seemingly using all their stories to bolster the upcoming multiverse sagas of “Avengers 5,” and “Avengers: Secret Wars,” Harington and fans of The Eternals and the Black Knight may just have to wait a few years unless the studio figures out some back door to fit his character in the multiverse saga. Harington also told us his Jon Snow “Game Of Thrones” spin-off isn’t happening, so more from this itrnuging interview soon. — Additional reporting by Mike DeAngelo.