Eternals
"In the beginning..."
The Eternals are a team of ancient aliens who have been living on Earth in secret for thousands of years. When an unexpected tragedy forces them out of the shadows, they are forced to reunite against mankind’s most ancient enemy, the Deviants.
The Eternals were created to farm civilizations for new Celestials. They stop the Emergence. Standalone story — no confirmed Doomsday payoff.
Why It Matters in the MCU
Chloé Zhao's Eternals is the MCU's most formally ambitious film and its most divisive: a story about immortal beings watching human civilisation develop over seven thousand years that deliberately resists the franchise's default kinetic register. The ensemble is the largest in any single MCU film, and the challenge of giving ten characters meaningful arcs within one two-and-a-half-hour runtime produces uneven results. Its most substantive contribution is raising the moral question the franchise had avoided — if beings capable of preventing atrocities choose not to, what does that make them? — and refusing to provide a comfortable answer.
Where It Fits in the MCU
Eternals sits at position 93 of 133 in the MCU's story-chronological order, placing it within the Phase 4 — Multiverse Opens (2024–2025) era. It is rated Optional — can be skipped without losing the main thread. Watching in story-chronological order provides the most coherent character development experience — individual arcs build naturally toward the franchise's major crossover events, with each film's post-credits scenes carrying forward into what follows.
Official Trailer
Cast
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Movie data from TMDB. Not endorsed by TMDB. As of June 9, 2026