Before its release, “Eternals” was poised to be a massive hit. You could argue that no new Marvel franchise has a better cast. The filmmaker, Chloé Zhao was coming off of Oscar wins. And the group of characters seemed like a new and interesting take on the classic superhero tropes. Sadly, the finished product didn’t light up the box office or score high reviews from fans and critics, leading to a lot of questions surrounding the future of the franchise. Will Marvel Studios attempt to make the Eternals a thing again? Or will they just fade into the background? Not even one of the film’s stars knows the answer to that.
Speaking on the Bingeworthy podcast (full episode coming soon), Kumail Nanjiani was promoting his upcoming series, “Welcome to Chippendales.” However, he did take some time to talk about his experience making “Eternals” and what might lie ahead for Kingo and the rest of the cosmic superhero crew, after one of his co-stars, Patton Oswalt, seemingly confirmed a sequel was in the works. Long story short–Nanjiani doesn’t know what’s going on.
“I have no idea,” said Nanjiani. “I don’t think Patton was right. I think that there was a hoax website – one of those where it’s like one letter off from the real one. They tweeted it, and it spread around and I think that’s what Patton saw. I honestly don’t know anything. I would love for Kingo to come back. I love playing that character…That one’s very fun to play, you’re just in a good mood. You do finger guns, you’re like a movie star – what’s not to love? You’re just in a good mood the entire time.”
He added, “I shot that movie for five months and I think I smiled straight for five months, so I would love to come back and I love what the MCU is doing now. I just saw ‘Black Panther 2‘ and I was really, really blown away. So, I’d love to come back, but I genuinely have no idea if or when.”
As mentioned, the characters from “Eternals” are more cosmic superheroes, and the film ended with some serious cliffhangers involving a galactic trial of sorts and some new characters joining the group. You would assume that would leave Nanjiani’s character off of Earth for the foreseeable future. That said, the actor would love to see Kingo hang out with another one of Marvel’s new characters.
“I would love to pair up with Ms. Marvel!” he said. “I just love that show and I thought Iman [Vellani] was so good and I just got to meet her and hang out with her for the first time and she’s just such a talented actor and such a wonderful human being and I think we’d be great on screen together. I’d love to be paired up with Ms. Marvel.”
At this point, it would appear that “Eternals 2” is far from an inevitability. Of course, when you have a cast that includes Nanjiani, Angelina Jolie, Kit Harington, Gemma Chan, Harry Styles, Patton Oswalt, Barry Keoghan, and more, you just have to assume Marvel Studios will find a home for them eventually.
-Additional reporting by Mike DeAngelo