Marvel Studios: Assembled (2021) s01e08 Episode Script

1
[DREAMY MUSIC PLAYING]
It's beautiful, isn't it?
CHAN: The Eternals is definitely
a very ambitious film.
You've got 10 new characters.
It spans 7,000 years.
You're on Earth, but you're also in space.
You're all over the planet.
Yeah, the scope and the scale of it
is huge.
MOORE: I mean, it's, I would argue,
our most ambitious film ever,
and that's in a MCU that has Endgame.
Almost anything you can think of.
There are monsters,
there are giant space gods.
There's also a love story.
It's part of why it got us excited
as filmmakers.
We've made 25 plus movies
at Marvel Studios,
but this does feel distinctly different
than anything we've done before.
HARRINGTON: This is a new world.
I think that's the thing
that's incredible about Marvel,
it's an incredibly complex universe.
I really think
Eternals is the most epic movie
that Marvel's done.
It's literally the highest stakes
that any MCU superhero
has had to deal with so far.
[HEROIC INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC PLAYING]
MOORE: By the end of this film,
how we look at the MCU
and the Earth itself will change.
The impact the Eternals will have
on the MCU
will be nothing less than redefining
the Cinematic Universe entirely.
[SERENE MUSIC PLAYING]
ZHAO: My initial vision for the film
can be summed up
in the William Blake poem.
"To see the World
"in a Grain of Sand
"And a Heaven in a Wild Flower.
"Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
"And Eternity in an hour."
When I went in to pitch
without saying anything,
that's what I did. [CHUCKLES]
The vision for the film is
how can we capture something so epic
and intimate at the same time,
something as epic
as the creation of the sun
and as intimate as
the soft whispers of a lover?
And how to have these moments
coexist in the film?
And that was the challenge.
[CAPTIVATING INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC PLAYING]
ZHAO: I'm not quite sure how it happened.
I had just made The Rider at the time.
So, when I got a call to come in
to meet Nate Moore,
I was very surprised and happy
about Eternals.
MOORE: We always look for directors
that inspire us
and who get great performances.
And I had seen Chloé's first film,
and then I saw The Rider
and thought it was amazing.
ZHAO: The very first conversation
I had with Nate
was very much about, obviously,
the stories and characters,
but also what I can contribute.
Right away we dive into,
one is, what are we doing,
but also how we're doing it.
Because how we're making this film
is going to define
what this film's gonna become.
Chloé has a very specific vision
for the movie.
Because of the way she shoots,
it feels extra personal.
So, you get the sensation
that you're making
almost like an independent film
that is huge.
When I heard she's doin' a Marvel movie,
I was like,
"Oh, God, I'd love to be a part of that."
And see how she gets in behind this
superhero world and makes it her own.
Chloé Zhao, who comes out of a more
naturalistic style of filmmaking,
really pressed us to figure out
how to shoot more of this
on practical location,
which, again, is challenging
just from a logistical standpoint
of getting your crew to different places.
Finding places that you can shoot outside,
battling rain and the elements,
it's challenging.
It's hard on your crew,
it's hard on your cast,
it's hard on our VFX team.
But it's all in service of
an aesthetic that's totally different.
That's a challenge we wanted to take on.
It's definitely a challenge,
but it's a challenge I love.
Because I came in both as a filmmaker
who wants to tell a story
but also as a fan.
For me, the MCU is a place with
great characters and great adventures.
And it's very obvious
it is made by a team of people
who really love the genre
and love their fans.
[EERIE MUSIC PLAYING]
It is time.
FEIGE: Marvel Studios and
the Marvel Cinematic Universe
is now past their 10th anniversary.
And with the release of
the final Avengers movie,
we finally completed
a 22-movie Infinity saga.
Where do we go from there?
Where do we start?
And what we really wanted to do
was two things.
Start fresh with whole new characters,
new storylines,
but actually go back to some of
the deepest, richest mythology
in all of Marvel Comics.
And when you look at
the myth-builders of Marvel,
Jack Kirby, he's called King Kirby
for a reason,
and he created The Eternals
many years ago,
which is one of the most mythologically
rich storylines in the history of Marvel.
It really gives us
a rich canvas to play with,
not just the Marvel canvas,
but the actual historical mythologies
of our world.
[SOFT MUSIC PLAYING]
The Eternals in the comics were
created by Jack Kirby in the late 1970s.
It was his second stint at Marvel,
and he was looking to do something
cosmic and completely new.
And in the comics, much like our film,
their job was
to protect humanity long enough
for the Celestials to come back and judge
whether humanity was worthy of
joining them in the stars.
In our film, I think they share
a very similar origin.
In the comics, the Celestials
came to Earth, found early man,
and did an experiment.
They created the Deviants,
which were a failed experiment.
And then seeing that they sort of failed,
they created the Eternals
as a counterpoint.
Kirby created a world that was
so exciting and interesting,
but it was grounded in human history
and treated like
it could live in our world.
[WAVES CRASHING]
I do love the mythology behind it,
and I love that he was able to bring
space mythology
with human mythology of the planet Earth
and that he combined that together
and created characters
that experienced that.
And gave us an opportunity to be able
to re-learn about our own history.
We're really excited
to explore the origins
of the entire
Marvel Cinematic Universe in our film.
We're looking at, for the first time,
meeting the Celestials face to face,
And you've sort of seen
glimpses of them in other films.
The Celestials we have hinted at
in earlier films,
Guardians of the Galaxy, Knowhere,
the base of operations for the Collector,
is in fact a Celestial head.
KAZ: The Celestials are such a cornerstone
of Marvel storytelling in publishing
and we wanna make them equally important
to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
[WHOOSHING]
KAZ: At its heart, Eternals is an epic.
It's about immortality.
It's about identity, it's about duty.
And we're exploring all these things
that so many amazing superheroes
have done before.
But specifically we're looking at it
over the course of the entirety of
mankind's history here on Earth.
To talk a little about the process,
we were given 800 pages of research.
All the comics, every graphic novel,
everything about this universe,
"Here you go. Go make up a movie."
And we spent four weeks, five weeks
really just thinking
and bashing our heads against the wall
and coming up with this world.
The Eternals has had three runs in comics
spanning over the last 30 or 40 years.
I mean, we're endlessly inspired
by all of King Kirby's works
and Neil Gaiman's run with The Eternals.
MOORE: The expectation,
I think, by our fans,
is that we're really going to mine from
the Neil Gaiman early 2000s run.
And that, to a lot of degrees,
is the most popular of The Eternals runs,
but for us, the true inspiration was from
Jack Kirby's original 1976 run.
And that is partially because he really
did steep that in our world history,
the history of the Aztecs.
A lot of his design language,
a lot of his, even narrative inspiration
was from the history of the world.
I have seen them fight and lie and kill
[SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING]
but I have also seen them
laugh and love.
ZHAO: What I like about
the story of Eternals
is that we're going back to
the beginning of our civilization
to see that actually,
they've been among us,
and they've been helping us
for all this time.
We're able to look at
real historical events.
We're able to look at the tragedies
and our greatest moments
and look at it through the lens of
what it means to be here on this planet.
This planet
and these people
have changed me.
And that afforded us an opportunity
to go back in time
and see things we haven't seen before.
Not only in the Marvel Universe,
but as filmmakers,
things that we don't get to see
a lot in film, frankly.
Ancient Mesopotamia
at the very dawn of civilization
and ancient Babylon, which is to most
historians the cradle of civilization.
The Gupta Empire at 200 AD.
It's a time period that we felt
we hadn't seen before a lot in cinema,
but was very rich with
a lot of historical facts
that even us as filmmakers
didn't know about.
Why didn't you guys help fight Thanos?
Or any war? Or all the other
terrible things throughout history?
We were instructed
not to interfere in any human conflicts
unless Deviants were involved.
Initially, trying to define
what these Deviants were,
we started looking
at ancient monsters from old stories.
You know,
from the Greeks and the Egyptians.
Chloé wanted something very unique.
We wanted to have something
that was alien,
but also add shapes
that we could kinda recognize.
Like, at the beginning
of the film, in Mesopotamia,
they're much bigger,
they're like dinosaurs.
They're huge monsters.
And as they evolve and as the time passes,
they become more like animals
that we see nowadays.
So, there was all that
kind of storytelling aspect of it
and that was informing
the design of the Deviants.
FIRPO: Even though The Eternals
takes place over 10,000 years
and there's these different elements
at the same time, Kevin and Nate,
through the whole process
have just constantly promoted character.
It's important to know the tone
and the genre of the movie
you're trying to make.
And the action to some degree, I think,
and I think our fans would agree
Run!
is secondary to the storytelling,
to what is the emotional core of
this movie, and why is that special
and why is that moving.
Because if the emotional core
and the characters aren't there,
then there's no attachment to
whatever happens to Iron Man or Thor.
In this case, the Eternals.
We're very much focusing on the family
dynamic of this group of Eternals.
There's layers to this movie.
There's a great sci-fi adventure
that spans through time.
And then underneath that,
there's a very complex family drama.
And then underneath that is a love story.
And then at the core of it actually,
I think, is the journey of self-discovery.
Our film is really led by Sersi,
this complex and flawed female hero
who really is, I think, our most human
hero in the MCU that we've ever seen.
Ethereal.
Observant.
Sweetness.
The future.
CHAN: Sersi is an empath,
and she can manipulate matter.
She can turn things into other things,
she also doesn't quite understand
the extent of her powers.
She is a very creative person. I think,
what excites me about her character is
she doesn't really punch anybody.
You know, her power comes from
her curiosity.
Therefore, she's an artist.
And she has a deep connection to nature.
You know, she's curious about humanity,
the way other Eternals might not be.
Sersi in the comics,
she has this lust for life
that often isn't seen in
stories about immortality.
She finds the beauty
in having been alive for so long
because she pulls upon
her experiences and her memories
and thinks of them fondly.
So that positive take is what
drew us to her as our protagonist.
[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING]
Conflicted.
Passion.
Mysterious.
Amazing.
Ikaris carries the weight of the world
on his shoulders.
He is the loyal soldier.
He wrestles with what's right
for him as a being
and what's right for the greater good.
So
Ikaris.
Sersi and Ikaris have been
on and off for about 5,000 years
so, yes, pretty long-term.
I guess you can call that long-term.
ZHAO: I think they look at humanity
very differently.
One analogy I really like is that
when Sersi sees a desert,
she sees grains of sand
and she finds beauty
in every grain of sand.
But Ikaris doesn't really see that.
He's looking at, "Okay, now
there's danger in the desert.
"We need to go." Then they
fall in love with each other
because they love seeing the world
through each other's eyes.
You know, they've hurt each other
in the past.
5,000 years, they've been through
everything together,
and there's real love there
and a lot of history.
I think like all great love stories,
films like Casablanca,
there are ups and downs.
And the kind of burden
they carry for the film,
the evolution of humanity have affected
how they feel about who they are.
Technology.
Inventor.
Smart.
Smart.
Protective.
HENRY: Phastos is basically
the technopath,
which means
I can use my mind and my energy
to literally assemble anything
out of any technology.
Everything he does, he wants
It's for the advancement of humankind.
He has so much faith in humanity.
He's so passionate
and, unfortunately as humans, we don't
always live up to his expectations.
At some point in his life,
he really changed his view of humankind
and just shut down.
And what I do love about his arc
is that you watch him care again.
For Phastos, who is that person who moves
from his heart and moves from his soul,
he's trying to restore that in himself
and restore it in others around him.
He's very much a emotional core for
many, many of the moments in the film.
There were more Deviants than you said.
Well, I'm sure that was
a lot of fun for you.
It was.
Fight.
Erratic.
Warrior.
Warrior.
Warrior.
Fragile.
[CAPTIVATING MUSIC PLAYING]
Thena is a warrior
and fights so fearlessly,
and that's all she loves to do.
She's the goddess of war.
She can manifest
different weapons in her hands,
which is complicated
when you're preparing or training.
I kept asking what my weapon was gonna be
so I could practice with it.
And I would just get weapons sent to me.
But I kept getting so many weapons
until I realized
it was gonna [CHUCKLING]
be a combination of all of them.
ZHAO: When she's not fighting, she doesn't
know where she belongs and how to be.
She's quiet and very observant.
And I would say has to go through
one of, if not the biggest obstacle,
in this film.
[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING]
Strong.
Provider.
Special brew.
Sexy, maybe. [CHUCKLES]
Gilgamesh is the strongest
of the Eternals.
He is a protector. His specialties
are punch, strong punch.
I should say big punch. Yeah. [CHUCKLES]
Gilgamesh has got the biggest heart.
He's very loyal.
He always puts his friends first.
It's a fun-loving, entertaining character.
I feel like I'm a big brother
for my family.
He's the lovable teddy bear.
He doesn't take things too seriously.
He takes time to stop and enjoy life.
Gilgamesh asked Druig
to put me to sleep once.
So I could take a vacation to Fiji,
you know?
[LAUGHS]
ZHAO: He's also the best cook.
If there is a holiday or a party,
you wanna want to go to Gilgamesh's house.
Sarcasm.
So cute.
Tragic.
McHUGH: Sprite can create illusions.
She's really fiery.
A little bit of a temper.
- Right?
- You abandoned me in Macedonia.
ZHAO: Sprite is someone who's
lived forever, stuck in a child's body.
And that's not easy. She is actually
the most mature of all the Eternals.
One of the most interesting things
about the Gaiman run of the comics
is the way he handles Sprite.
He gave it a new level
of tragedy and nuance,
and I think that caused us to wanna make
her an important character in our film.
All she's ever wanted is to be able to
experience a beautiful life
and be able to be a child
and go through that experience.
ZHAO: For Sprite,
it's a very emotional journey for her
to find her place.
[BUZZING]
[CRASHES]
Oh, no, you didn't.
Yearning.
Passion.
Jerk.
Druig sucks.
He does, sir.
Druig. He's mind control.
He stands for what he believes in.
And if that decision puts him
in a division with the others,
he's not afraid of that.
He's very idealistic
and he's very philosophical.
He is someone that if he likes you, great.
If he doesn't like you,
you better watch out.
Walking down the steps of the Aztec,
the set itself was unreal.
Very, very tricky because the steps were
very, very steep, you know,
and I had to look at the camera
when I'm walking down.
Just hoped that I get the next step
and, you know, play it cool.
Then everyone in costume
and then to be standin' up,
and everyone drops. It's like
[BLOWS AIR]
That was a superhero moment, that.
[INTENSE MUSIC PLAYING]
[UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYING]
Showboat.
Show-off.
Charisma.
Funny dude.
[LAUGHS]
Joy.
Kingo. Kingo loves life.
NANJIANI: So, Kingo is this guy
who's always been pretty flashy.
He's always wanted
people to know he's a superhero,
but he can't reveal that.
So, to him, this is the second best thing.
Superhero, movie star.
So people won't know he's a superhero.
But everyone's gonna know
he's a movie star.
You think I'm a movie star.
Well, I am. But I am also
an Eternal.
My character's introduction in the present
is on a Bollywood movie set,
and he does this big
Bollywood dance number.
I don't dance. I don't know how to dance.
We'd started shooting, and Chloé was like,
"Just so you know, I'm writing you
a big dance sequence."
And I was like, "I'm full of fear.
That sounds amazing.
"Get me a dance teacher."
And so, Nileeka has been my dance teacher,
and I worked with her for months
before we actually shot that scene.
And there were, like, 50 backup dancers,
and there's this massive Bollywood set.
All the work paid off.
It looks beautiful.
[WHOOSHES]
Fast.
Fast.
Super-fast.
MOORE: Makkari is the fastest woman
in the universe.
She uses her cosmic energy
to run at accelerated rates.
But she can also break the sound barrier
so she can create these amazing
concussive blasts of sound,
which makes her very powerful in battle.
MOORE: Anyone who's met Lauren
has seen her energy.
She really pushed us
to use sign language in the film.
And her husband, Doug, ended up being
a sign language interpreter for us as well
and helped the other actors learn to sign.
She gave us rules
by which we could run a set
that would be friendly
for someone who is deaf.
She brought a lot of that knowledge
into our production
so that we could do things the right way.
Leader.
- Maternal.
- Mother.
Mama.
Love.
Ajak is kind of
the leader of the Eternals.
The way she approaches this leadership
is from the perspective of motherhood.
So, she has a special relationship
with each one of them.
ZHAO: She's both the mother and a teacher.
She's both loving, but also tough.
And she has some big, big decisions
to make in the film.
I had a very important moment for me
in this film, personally.
I have a scene
where you have to ride a horse.
And I had an accident with a horse
many, many years ago.
So, I didn't get on horses.
And I freed myself
from my past, from my fear.
And I was able to just
gallop with the horse and feel
And I really didn't know
if I was gonna be able to do it.
But I wanted to do it.
And I think it even helped me
with the character.
For the character,
it was a freeing experience for me.
[INSPIRING MUSIC PLAYING]
I think, for me, each of these characters
and the journey,
the emotional journey they go through,
represents an aspect of human nature.
And a exploration of the duality
in each of us.
So, in a way, what they picked up from us,
that they love or hate,
say a lot about who they are,
but also say a lot about who we are.
- And action.
- And action!
[SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING]
I think it was very cleverly cast,
this movie.
Every single one of us
is bizarrely right for the role.
Everybody is unique and special
and loving and giving.
When I cast, you know,
in all the films I've made before,
I'm trying to see how much of this
character that's already in this person.
That excites me the most.
As much as possible.
So then, they're going to bring an aspect
of who they are on screen.
There's a camera.
It will capture something
that I can never plan
and I can never write,
and that process excites me.
There was definitely some
unexpected relationships and dynamics
that came about
that I would never have thought
just from reading the script
off the pages,
once you get the actors together.
I really loved having one-on-one scenes
with each of the actors in the cast,
and we really discovered
unexpected things.
I think we're very fortunate.
The first time
they got in the room together,
the sparks were just flying.
I was like, "Okay," you know?
You never expect to see these people
in the same room in the real world.
They come from different backgrounds,
and they come from
different life experiences.
But there is something about
each of my cast.
There's just a bit of a misfit about them.
They carry something quite special.
And that, I think, unites them as a family
because the Eternals lives
on the periphery.
A group of immortals who have been
on Earth for 35,000 years.
They've been there amongst the MCU.
We haven't met them before.
Do you guys have any interest
in meeting some of the Eternals?
- CROWD: [CHEERING] Yes!
- All right.
I know the cast all met for the same
time, save Gemma, at Comic-Con in July.
Ladies and gentlemen, as Ikaris,
Richard Madden.
Kumail Nanjiani.
Lauren Ridloff.
Playing Sprite, Lia McHugh.
WOMAN: How does it feel to be
the youngest person
to portray one of the oldest
MCU characters?
- [CHUCKLING] It doesn't feel real.
- [WOMAN LAUGHS]
Comic-Con was really fun
to meet everyone for the first time.
I mean, I think immediately
we all just clicked.
Coming together for the first time
at Comic-Con was major because
- Salma Hayek.
- [CROWD CHEERING]
HAYEK: there were so many people
to present ourselves to
at the same time that we
were presenting ourselves to each other.
And that was bizarre. That was bizarre.
And kind of scary also
to realize the level of expectation
that the audience have.
[CROWD CHEERING]
And we're just like standing there
looking at each other and saying,
"We better not mess this up."
The Eternals!
[CROWD CHEERING AND APPLAUDING]
[DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING]
What excites me the most, selfishly,
is the world-building, and the designs.
The foundation, Jack Kirby's comics,
and also the Neil Gaiman run as well,
are great inspirations.
We also done a lot of research
with historians,
language experts,
anthropologists, scientists.
[UPLIFTING MUSIC PLAYING]
And it was very important
for Eternals to do that
because to convince the audience
that these superheroes have been
on this planet for 7,000 years,
you want to really feel like
they were actually there, visually.
[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING]
STEWART: So, as a production designer,
you're actually responsible for every
single thing that you see on camera,
whether someone's eatin' a sandwich,
to whether someone's driving a car
or a spaceship, or every single location.
When you have to build over 130 sets,
it's a huge endeavor.
And the scope is enormous.
We're traveling 'round the world,
through space, through time.
It's been extraordinary,
the breadth and width of everything
that we've had to achieve.
My starting point on this film
was obviously the Kirby comics.
I really looked at those,
and one of the great things is
how much it linked in with the script
in certain ways.
One of the sets in particular really
inspired me to delve further into it.
And this set was
the Aztec temple of Teotihuacán.
It was believed to have
been set up by gods or aliens.
It's in human folklore everywhere.
So, I really started to investigate this,
and then it worked out that
there's over 100,000 people lived there.
It was nowhere near a river.
It was nowhere near anything.
And the myth and the legend is
that some gods had come
and built this for the people.
And so, that started
a real train of thought
that I took through
to the rest of the production.
Then I started to really get into
what influence that they think
the alien peoples have come to this planet
and had an influence
on our technology, on everything.
And what was amazing
is then going back to the comics,
and within that, there were illustrations
of all the temples
and his own take on it
with the Eternals and the Celestials
drawn within the decoration
on the temples.
So we took that forward
and lifted that decoration
and then had that emblazoned on our build.
When they're in the interior, the top of
the temple, it's very much that Kirby nod.
Our production design led by Eve Stewart,
really did their homework
creating a language
that then we could employ on the costumes
and on walls of the starship
and have an aesthetic that felt unified.
We wanted it to feel ancient
and technologically advanced all at once,
that was a challenge
from a design standpoint.
How do you make these aliens feel
like they've been here for 7,000 years
and also feel like
the inspiration for things
humans built throughout history?
Well, this was a real challenge
'cause when I started,
I read that the Eternals had been created
by the Celestials.
It was a million years ago, so it
can't be a spaceship like all the ones
you love in the Ridley Scott films.
And then this spaceship has been
lying dormant, theoretically, on Earth
for the last 7,000 years.
I felt it couldn't have any proper
reference to human technology.
Also, on top of that, I just felt that it
was such a spiritual place
for these people
and it'd been set up, theoretically,
by the Celestials, which are gods.
So, I started to look at sacred geometry,
the way shapes worked throughout
all the religions across the world.
Any religion loves a circle.
All religions love a triangle.
So, I was trying to put those together.
So the exterior of the ship became
triangular quite quickly
just because of aerodynamics.
But also, Chloé and I discussed a lot
how triangles and circles fit together,
both in Christianity and Islamism
and also in Asian culture.
So, it became a very global thing
that we went for.
So, we started with loads of triangles.
And then I went to see some scientists,
and they said this was very good
because triangular planes
can also create a vertical lift
if you've got enough energy
around all the points.
So, this is where we started.
HAYEK: I was really, really surprised
when I walked into our ship.
Because how many ships have you seen?
They all look the same. Futuristic.
This one is completely
out of the ordinary, unimaginable,
every object, every little detail in it.
It's really new and exciting.
STEWART: I really love the spaceship
because it's so unusual,
and I think it is to do with the circular
nature of it with the domed ceilings,
and that it's almost cathedral-like
or temple-like.
And the textures of it,
we worked really hard getting it
so that it looked like
the inside of a meteor.
Like, it was really, truly ancient.
We looked at
ancient Babylonian cuneiforms.
We actually made our own.
These say things like, star, moon,
travel, man, Earth, and god.
These correspond exactly to the costumes.
When they stand against this wall, the
power from Arishem creates the costumes.
[SERENE MUSIC PLAYING]
DIFFER: All the shapes in the costumes
are based in the world of Jack Kirby.
One thing that Chloé discussed a lot
was the circles with the lines
that run through all his imagery.
ZHAO: Because they had been
on Earth for 7,000 years,
could the symbols, the shapes on their
bodies have influenced some designs
in religion and in cultures
all around the world?
So that all went into the design.
I can honestly say that these costumes
are the most difficult superhero costumes
I've ever made.
[UPLIFTING MUSIC PLAYING]
DIFFER: This room is our exhibition
of the superhero costumes
and some of the other epochs
within the film.
When I first read the script, I was like,
"Wow! This has got everythin'."
It's got all different periods.
It's got future, past, everything.
So, from a costume design perspective,
there's a lot there to play with.
And on top of that, you know
you're gonna design 10 new superheroes.
One of the things that was asked
was that they didn't look like
just superhero armor-clad uniforms,
that they look like a second skin.
And we had to incorporate the cosmos.
So we started off looking at
minerals and nature,
and started experimenting with fabrics.
ZHAO: I remember Kevin
visited our production.
He was like, "This is like
a science experiment."
Because when you see the film,
you see it isn't just blue.
We used different type of black,
different type of blue,
and oil paint, and then
put them together on a sheet.
And then you have to wait for a few days
to naturally see what kind of texture
you get.
Each of these costumes are unique.
It takes many, many experiments,
because on a big screen,
you can really see all the textures.
There's so many layers on each costume
and they're all done by hand.
It's a big undertaking,
and the smallest amount of pieces
on a character was five or six.
Going up to, like, Sprite,
who had 18 pieces on her.
And each one of those pieces
has to be drawn up in the computer,
molded, cast, cleaned up,
edited, paint work.
All of our pieces are
incredibly labor intensive.
So, at times, I had seven or eight people
in the work room
just painting these pieces.
And for each of these 10 characters,
we had at least six repeats of costumes.
So, it's really difficult to imagine just
how much work there was in there.
Ajak loves nature
and she is also the leader,
and has the link to the Celestials.
So she has this amazing headdress,
and there's a lot of flowing lines
upwards with her.
Very gold and blue.
And we've got this amazing cape,
which is all hand-painted.
And I was lucky to work with Sammy,
who put a lot of symbolic stuff
into my costume.
There's a mixture of empowerment
and also pride
of being able to wear this costume
that means something important.
Sersi loves humanity,
she's a very giving person.
The color that we gave her
was basically green and silver.
So, she has flowing areas
to make it feminine and soft.
It's not super-structured.
It's a bit more ethereal, really.
And then we've got Ikaris,
who is very much a fighter.
We wanted to get away from the idea that
you've just got a superhero jumpsuit.
And so for him, it's done
in a segmented armor way.
Sprite, she's a thinker.
And it's slightly alabastery,
and a bit of jade going on with hers.
What we decided to do with her was have
a bit of fun with her modern look
and kinda show her as someone
who actually desperately
wants to be more grown up.
So she wears quite quirky
but serious clothes.
Like she was trying to find an identity.
And then, we have Druig.
He's very monastic.
He goes through a very big turning point.
As we go through time with him,
he gets darker and darker.
so his costume is very dark.
It's quite long.
It's very strong in the center.
Thena is a warrior,
but equally, there's also
a fragility about her.
She starts off as this
amazing gold goddess,
and then slowly through time,
she becomes this fragile,
lacey, very soft,
damaged butterfly in a way.
Gilgamesh is the strongest warrior,
so he's very heavily armored,
and this is quite hard, for him.
And he goes on the journey with Thena,
so he gets stuck in time with her.
So, they don't change
their clothes to the modern world.
So, we had them living in a place
where they sort of stopped in about 1900.
And so, he has very old-looking clothes.
NANJIANI: What I love about my costume is
that there is no other costume in
the MCU that looks like this one.
It moves really well. It fits really well.
And it's purple, which has been
my favorite color my whole life.
And I'm sure everybody tells you that
they got teary-eyed when they put it on.
And I certainly did.
My favorite moment on this film
has been Brian.
His final fitting was just
absolutely my favorite moment.
So I go in for my final fitting.
You see the drawings
It still doesn't really hit you
'cause every time
they showed me the drawings,
I was like, "Is that me? That's not me.
Is that really me?"
We put the costume on him
and he wouldn't look in the mirror.
I just battled with a lot of things
when it came to how I thought
the MCU should look,
and I was really nervous
about how I'd be portrayed.
He was starting to breathe really heavily.
Every time a zipper went up,
or a button went on,
or like I've put my boots on,
I was just like, "Okay!"
They're like,
"Brian, you have to turn and look."
I'm, "I'm really not ready."
I was worried for him,
he said, "No, I'm fine."
So when they finally zipped up the back,
they're, "Okay, you have to
look at yourself."
So I turned around.
And then when he did turn around,
he just screamed.
[YELLS]
"Oh, my God! This is incredible."
[YELLS]
I just screamed, "Everybody come in here.
"Everybody who had anything to do
with this suit, come in here."
And so, they all came in.
And I just And I'm
I'm crying, I am weeping.
"You don't understand
how you just made this little Black boy
"from North Carolina who never
thought in a million years
"that he could stand here and believe
that he was a superhero."
I have to say this from
the bottom of my heart,
every single person that had
anything to do with making this movie,
they're the real heroes, like honestly.
We couldn't be the heroes
we are without them,
and I just want people to know that
when they watch these movies
that there are so many people
that give their time and their effort
to make me feel like a superhero.
[INSPIRING MUSIC PLAYING]
My favorite part was seeing
everyone in costume
and all of us just standing in a line.
NANJIANI: It just was so exciting to see
everybody in their costumes.
We were all screaming
and getting teary-eyed all day.
I was like, [EXCLAIMING]
"Oh, my God! Look!"
When we did all come together,
we were quite moved.
It was really amazing.
It was very windy, it was very dramatic.
Everyone's capes were flying.
There are times in a production
where you get to feel almost like a fan.
And that's really special.
ZHAO: Thank you. Thank you, Eternals!
[SLOW INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC PLAYING]
HARRINGTON: When I signed up
for this movie, I thought,
"I'll be in a big green box
in the studio somewhere,
"and that's just what this is."
I was wrong. I think I've been in
the studio one day
out of all my days of being here.
Chloé really wanted to use as much
practical settings, sets, as we could,
so we've been on location a lot.
The locations and the geography
is a huge part of the film.
It's entwined with it, because it's really
the story of the growth of civilization,
combined with nature
and the way humanity and nature
have evolved alongside each other.
So, we shot a lot around London,
and London was
a Swiss Army knife location for us.
It allowed us to be in North Dakota,
then in Alaska.
It allowed us to be
in the Amazon, surprisingly.
It allowed us to be in
different periods of history.
It was the night shoots where
they'd shut down Camden.
I kind of went, "Wow, this is
They can do this?
"They can shut down one of the busiest
parts of London for us to film here?"
That's a lot of ambition.
But we also shot a good deal of the film
in Fuerteventura and Lanzarote,
in the Canary Islands,
which is a Spanish-owned island chain
off the coast of Africa.
That gave us a lot of looks
that we hadn't had
in any of our other movies.
And allowed us to
double again, historically,
for places that no longer exist
or are hard to get to.
Yeah, we went to the Canary Islands,
and then we were shooting
Babylon and Mesopotamia,
and we felt like
we are in Mesopotamia.
It looked so real and that is so great.
It was great to be able to actually shoot
on locations and forests and woods
on these black sand beaches,
on volcanic islands.
HAYEK: When you are actually
on a location,
it helps you get into
the reality of things,
as bizarre as they are.
You've never seen places like these.
This is absolutely magical. Magical.
It's spectacular, this landscape.
HENRY: I've never been around the world
like this on a movie.
This movie is by no means easy.
I don't know if you've been to
Fuerteventura, but there is nothing there.
No diss, but, like, it is an island.
And then we show up at this location,
and it's like rocks,
there used to be volcanoes here.
And then you're on a cliff.
Did I mention that?
There were cliffs on this place,
and you're doing major fight scenes.
And you're climbing over things
and you're doing wire work.
And then there's the beach.
The wind of Fuerteventura is no joke,
you're like in dust.
And black sand does not
come off your body that easily.
It was unbelievable 'cause when I tell you
that we had to band together,
we had to band together, and I think
we got incredibly close at Fuerteventura.
It was fun to all be in the same hotel
'cause we were all having dinner
and seeing each other and hanging out.
I think being on location
really helps you feel it more
and just be more in the moment.
- ZHAO: Cut. All right.
- Dave?
- ZHAO: Beautiful. That's it. Got it.
- MAN: Yeah. We got it.
For us, going to shoot on location
allowed us to be able to capture
the light and capture the place.
You want the audience to not only
to see the character,
you wanna see the character in
relationship to the world behind them.
It's very difficult to make that
feel real on a stage.
So, going to a location was
a very natural progression.
And it's exciting for our
visual effect supervisor, Steph Ceretti.
He always wanted to capture
as many real
and natural elements as possible.
Actually, for us, it's more interesting
to have to deal with real material
that comes with all the things
you can't control, really.
[WIND BLOWING]
And that makes the film
a bit more real in that sense.
We really wanted to push the idea
that everything has to be shot,
as much as possible, in a real place.
And Chloé really wanted that.
For example, the Amazon Forest scene
- [GRUNTS]
- [GROWLS]
Ikaris!
CERETTI: We were talking
about shooting it in a studio
and talking with Chloé,
and the two of us were like,
"No, I mean, we can't do that.
There's never going to be enough room.
"We gotta shoot that on location."
Even though it was really difficult,
in England, getting into the winter,
lots of rain, [CHUCKLES]
as you can imagine.
But it made total sense to actually
go on location and feel the environment.
And have the actors in the environment
and feeling the elements.
And also having
that freedom with the camera
to shoot anywhere and not be constrained.
So, it was much more organic in that way,
shooting it this way
and much more visceral
which, you know, Chloé really wanted
to capture as much as possible.
- [YELLS]
- [GROWLING]
And it's difficult,
a big challenge for him.
How he can make his visual effects element
blend into the real world
because when you hit that sweet spot,
then you can achieve the kind of realism
that Eternals really needs.
[GROWLING]
CERETTI: The action scene on the beach
Beautiful environment, amazing location.
We wanted to shoot there
so we could capture as much as possible
from the real light,
the environment, the wind.
There was challenges
in bringing stunt rigs
and special effects rigs on the beach
because it was so remote.
And there was a lot of the action
we could not actually shoot,
so we ended up building the environment
as a CG environment
so that we could have it
and also design some shots
that we couldn't get on location,
with full CG characters fighting, flying,
hitting each other at full speed.
But the thing that we tried to keep
is the cinematography aspect of it.
Trying to make our CG shots
to match the style of shooting
that Chloé wanted to retain,
to keep it natural.
When you do a sequence on a set,
you usually have
full control of the light.
The light doesn't change,
the sky doesn't change,
because it's the same sky we use
for all the shots.
Here it's not the way it is.
Every shot had a different sky,
a different wind, a different cloud,
so it's something
that we tried to fight a little bit,
but then Chloé told us,
"Don't fight it, don't fight it.
"Make it look natural.
"We went there to shoot it
and things change.
"Do the same in your CG shots.
"Just make it as it would be natural.
"Embrace the natural light
and the natural elements."
So that was very, very interesting for us.
It was a really cool
symbiotic relationship.
[UPLIFTING MUSIC PLAYING]
To some degree, it was a learning curve
for her to work with
because she had never been
on a movie this size,
she'd never had the same resources
that we have on our films.
But we'd never tried to tell a story
the way that she does.
We'd never moved the camera
in the way that she wants to.
ZHAO: I come from an Indie world.
To be able to let your imagination
just be set free
and then to have people
who are so experienced and open-minded
to be able to take your ideas
and elevate it
and just go crazy with it
is an incredible process.
- MAN 1: He's holding the white bag.
- MAN 2: Yeah, that is good.
Chloé likes to shoot at
what she would call "magic hour,"
when the sun is just about to
dip below the horizon.
You've all these heroes
in their amazing costumes,
and the ocean is this giant wave,
and the wind is blowing,
and it's the perfect environment
that you would hope that you could
recreate digitally but very rarely could.
And the actors and actresses
would say that moment was special
'cause it was the end of the movie.
So, even though you're shooting
out of sequence,
you feel it from an energy
and a dramatic standpoint.
But that was a moment
that really felt special.
[LIFE MEMORY SUITE PLAYING]
ZHAO: We knew this film has to
heavily rely on themes.
You have 11 characters, right?
And you have 7,000 years human history.
And you have space, you have Earth,
all these elements.
It's important to repeat themes.
And that's something Ramin does
so beautifully in Game of Thrones.
Ramin created
these beautiful, beautiful themes.
And when the theme starts,
he evoke a emotion.
Instead of giving themes
to each characters,
we thought about it, thematically,
"What do those characters go through
throughout history?
"Love, mission, memories,
just all these aspects.
"And let's create themes
for their emotional state."
ZHAO: That way, yeah, actually, the themes
help us connect this massive story.
So every time that memory theme shows up,
it doesn't matter
whether you're in present-day Amazon,
or you're in Ancient Babylon,
you understand how far
these characters has journeyed,
and yet they still are dealing with
the same struggles, which is humanity.
- Eternals assemble.
- WOMAN 1: Thank you.
- ZHAO: Eternals assemble.
- WOMAN 2: Okay.
HAYEK: There is a family atmosphere,
but there's something very profound about
the way she approaches the characters,
and how she works with the actors.
And she really draws you into a character.
- So good.
- [CHUCKLES]
NANJIANI: I think the character moments
are hugely important,
and those are the real moments that
people remember from the MCU movies.
The little moment, the Avengers
sitting around eating shawarma.
That's the stuff that
really people connect with.
And Chloé Zhao, our director,
has been very good about
finding those little moments.
Obviously, the fighting, the aliens,
all that stuff, very exciting.
But we've been a family for 7,000 years.
There's a lot of baggage there,
and exploring that has been the most
satisfying part of this movie.
McHUGH: Chloé is so perceptive in
every single little moment of the film,
and she's always thinking of
what she can do better,
and she just wants to
make it the best that it can be.
She's involved
in every single aspect of the film,
she's doing 100 things at once.
I don't know how she does it,
but it's amazing.
She's a kamikaze agent, man.
There's nothing greater
than watching your director
see you do something and get excited,
when she jumps from behind the camera
and runs up.
She makes you wanna try stuff.
She makes you believe
the vision includes you
and how you craft it
and how you mold it,
so there's a lot of improv,
there's a lot of discoveries
that we're finding amongst each other.
I knew she'd get the character stuff.
I knew she'd get the relationship stuff,
but her stuff with the action
There'll be an action scene we shoot,
she's like, "You wanna see it?"
I'll look,
and it just looks like
no other action scene I've seen,
in an MCU movie or otherwise.
HAYEK: Chloé uses our personalities
and our diversity
in a seamless way in the film
that it's unifying,
and it makes you feel part
of something really special.
[INTENSE MUSIC PLAYING]
I never imagined that I would
ever be part of the MCU,
especially, as like a superhero.
I had some friends who got to be
in 'em in different parts
and I was like, "Oh, man,
I just wanna be a guy who
"fixes Captain America's computer
or something."
And now to actually be in this,
it's pretty great.
To be able to be a part
of a film by Marvel
that has the most diversity
that we've ever seen
in any superhero movie of all time.
I think it's exciting. I think it really
shows the scope of the film,
and it's global.
You see this great mix of people
from lots of different backgrounds
and cultures.
I think it really enriches
the story that we're telling
because it really is an epic global story.
KAZ: And really, it's the first time
we've ever been here on Earth,
where we've had a team of superheroes
that really are as diverse as Earth is.
You know, as our planet is,
as humanity is.
This ensemble, truly, I'm getting chills
thinking about it.
Everybody looks different,
sounds different.
Everybody has a completely
different energy.
I've literally never seen
an ensemble like this,
and the fact that
we get to do it for Marvel
as superheroes, what a special thing.
HENRY: It's interesting because I never
in a million years thought
I'd be a part of the MCU.
What I like about what Chloé did
is that she really took us as is.
I know that
I'm not the standard Marvel aesthetic,
but Chloé, she was like,
"No, that is the point.
"Like, you are that.
"We need these people
to reflect everyday people,
"'cause anyone can be a superhero."
I love that because people going into this
have their own concept of
what they think Marvel should be,
and how Marvel should look like,
should sound.
And, what we're doin' is,
we're gonna smash all that
and just give people a sense to know
that they can see themselves up there.
- MAN: Watch your back.
- [GRUNTS]
[ALL CHATTERING INDISTINCTLY]
KEOGHAN: That's tough for me, man.
Are you cool?
- HENRY: I love you.
- KEOGHAN: I love you, bro.
HAYEK: One thing that I really cherish
is that I really feel that I've created
a special personal relationship
with each one of the characters
and each one of the actors
and some really beautiful friendships.
LEE: I think everyone
found their roles pretty quickly.
Not only in the film, but outside too.
We have come to feel like
a family together.
It felt like we'd known each other.
We felt like I don't know what it was,
but we were very quickly
We were friends.
HENRY: I love them all, honestly,
every single one of my cast members.
I mean, we're absolutely family.
It's unbelievable
how that kinship came along.
I really feel like embracing them
and keeping them together.
I know it's part of my character,
but it's really rubbed off on me.
I feel responsible.
So it was very easy to become a family.
We became a family very, very fast.
- ZHAO: Cut.
- WOMAN: Beautiful.
[CHATTERING INDISTINCTLY]
[BELL DINGING]
MOORE: For a movie that's about 10
immortal aliens from the planet Olympia,
it's very much about humanity
and what it means to be human,
and what it means to be of this Earth.
And are we stewards of this Earth,
or is this Earth just a stepping stone
to something greater?
I think as a society, both as
a U.S. society and a global society,
we're starting to tackle
what our relationship is to this Earth,
what our relationship is to each other.
I think that's
an important theme to explore
because that's the things
we're facing on a day to day.
You do not turn against your family.
The film actually becomes very much
a celebration of planet Earth,
and a celebration of humanity.
We are learning about
what it means to be mortal,
what it means to be a human being
that has a very limited amount
of time in this universe.
And I think that's a beautiful way
to celebrate humanity.
It is important to stress that
we are all very powerful,
but we are the most powerful when we
come together towards helping this planet.
It's a beautiful message. When we all
come together, we're all stronger,
and that's when we can
actually make an impact.
ZHAO: This film is going to have
a big effect on the future of the MCU
to a point where it makes me
geek out so much as a fan,
that I was able to make a film that could
ripple through the MCU like this.
[UPLIFTING MUSIC PLAYING]
I feel like, for me,
throughout the journey,
Kevin, Nate, and the whole team,
they catch me when I fall.
When I'm spreading my wings and going
crazy, they're letting me loose.
I learned so much from them.
I'm just so grateful
they gave me this opportunity
to not only pay tribute and respect
of the past of MCU,
but also extend the MCU into the future.
[ENTHRALLING INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC PLAYING]
And that, for me, is an honor.