How Eternals Post Credits Scenes Change The MCU Forever (SPOILERS)

With Marvel’s Eternals now in theaters, we take a look at what the post-credit scenes could mean for the future of the MCU…

Marvel Studios Eternals saw the Marvel Universe’s oldest superheroes make their cinematic debut, in a breathtaking sci-fi adventure from Academy Award Winner Chloe Zhao. As with any Marvel movie, the credits never quite mark the end of the film. Today I’m going to be talking about the mid and post-credits scenes of Eternals, and how it affects both the Eternals and the wider MCU. Of course, major spoilers to follow so you have been warned.

SPOILER WARNING

The first end-credit scene sees Thena, Makkari and Druig weeks into their search for the other Eternals across the universe. But their search has hit a roadblock. The other Eternals are nowhere to be found. Just like Sersi, Phastos and Kingo at the end of the film, they have seemingly been taken by the Celestial, Arashem. They are shortly interrupted by the arrival of Pip the Troll (Voiced by Patton Oswalt) and Eros a.k.a Starfox (played by Harry Styles).

Eros tells the Eternals he can help them find their friends and knows where they are. The implication of this characters inclusion and the small details we get on him says a lot. So allow me to divulge into a theory that I am 100% confident in, which changes the MCU massively.

Eros, an Eternal, is Thanos’ brother and a Prince of Titan (Thanos’ homeworld). So obviously, like the comics, Thanos was an Eternal but with some sort of variation. Nonetheless, I suspect Thanos and Eros are not native to Titan. They were placed there by the Celestials the same as the Eternals of Earth.

Much like the Eternals we meet in the film, Thanos learnt of the Celestials plan and rebelled, he sought to avert the destruction that a Celestials emergence would cause. But rather than stop the Celestial, something not within his power, he tried to take away what the Celestial needed to emerge.

A high planet population is necessary for the emergence, the Celestial must feed on the energy of billions of lives to be born. Thanos planned to take away that option for the Celestial:

“Titan was like most planets, too many mouths, not enough to go around and when we faced extinction I offered a solution.”

“Genocide?”

“But random, dispassionate, fair, to rich and poor alike. They called me a Madman. Then what I predicted came to pass.”

Thanos took an extremist approach and his failure to save his planet drove him further down a villainous path. To cast away doubts of this theory, Ajak even says in the film that Thanos delayed the emergence and it was the return of half the population that generated the power necessary for the emergence.

Also bear in mind that the MCU is planned years in advance, and with only 3 years separating Eternals and Infinity War, it seems clear that this was part of the plan all along. Even the vagueness of the disaster that destroyed Titan sets up the later reveal that this movie provides through context.

Thanos’ plan was the selling point of his character and made him an understandable, though psychotic, character. But knowing that he was truly trying to prevent apocalypse level events caused by literal gods, gives a whole new layer to one of the MCU’s best and baddest villains.

At the end of the film, shortly before Sersi’s abduction at the hands of Arashem, Dane mentions his family history is a bit more complicated than he thought. The post-credit scene finds Dane Whitman confronting that family history, a case bearing his family crest containing a bandage wrapped sword, the Ebony Blade. He wrestles with taking it and begins to hear ethereal voices echoing around, finally he goes to touch the blade and some sort of magical movement towards him appears in the blade.

But he’s stopped by a resonating voice just out of shot, “Sure you’re ready for that, Mr. Whitman?”. While it might not have been immediately clear, that voice belongs to Mahershala Ali as the MCU’s Blade!

 

It’s an exciting inclusion that gives us our first introduction, however minor, to Marvels most famous vampire slayer. It’s safe to assume that we will next be seeing Dane in the Blade movie and the film will have two sword-wielding heroes joining forces against the mystical threats of the Marvel Universe, including vampires. The release date on Blade is somewhat unclear at the moment but with Assam Bariq attached as director, it seems that shooting should begin very soon.

Beyond Blade, which is obviously the biggest moment, the scene also has some significant comic book implications. Throughout the film Dane’s family are vaguely alluded to, well comic book fans will know that Dane Whitman is one of the many people to hold the mantle of the Black Knight, a role passed down Whitman’s family through the Ebony Blade.

The Ebony Blade is a mystical weapon that protects its wielder from death, magic and can cut through anything but at the price of a curse that drives its wielder further into a bloodlust. Dane Whitman’s uncle was a Black Knight and a villain in the comics, alluded to in Eternals when Sersi refers to Dane’s “complicated relationship with his Uncle”.


Eternals credits scenes were massive and both gave some insane implications for the future of the MCU, Marvel isn’t messing around and we are full steam ahead into the craziness of Phase 4 and beyond.

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