How the 'Eternals' end credit scenes raise questions about the team's MCU future (2024)

Warning: This article contains spoilers from Eternals.

When Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) donned the Infinity Gauntlet inAvengers: Endgameand snapped his fingers to resurrect everyone who died, he also revivedEW's Marvel Movie Clubseries, which revisited every Marvel movie in the lead-up to 2017'sAvengers: Infinity War.EW's Chancellor Agard re-examined one Marvel movie a week, every week, to reassess its powers and hopefully answer important questions like "What was The Incredible Hulk?" "Does Nick Fury wash his eyepatch?" and "Is there a point to Hawkeye?" along the way. In this special edition of the series, we dissect the Eternals end-credits scenes and what they might mean for the future of the MCU.

Eternals raised more questions about the titular band of heroes' future in the Marvel Cinematic Universe than it answers.

Directed by Chloe Zhao, the centuries-spanning 26th Marvel movie stars Gemma Chan (Sersi), Angelina Jolie (Thena), and many more as a group of super-powered beings who were created by the godlike Celestial Arishem and sent to Earth to protect humanity from the predatory Deviants — or so they thought. Upon reuniting in the present day, the gang discovers that their real mission was to help Earth develop until the birth of a new Celestial from its core, which is an apocalyptic event. Thus, it fell on the team — at least those who were willing — to save humanity from destruction.

This is a Marvel movie that isn't Avengers: Infinity War, so of course they succeeded. However, their victory came at a price and, interestingly, open the door for some new opportunities, too. Below, we break down the movie's two end-credit scenes and what they could mean for the characters' futures in the MCU.

The mid-credits scene: He's so golden

Eternals' first post-movie scene introduces two new yet major characters. The movie ends with the titular super-family splitting off into groups. Sersi, Phastos (Brian Tyree Henry), and Kingo (Kumail Nanjiani) decided to stay on Earth while Thena, Druig (Barry Keoghan), and Makkari (Lauren Ridloff) venture to the stars in the Domo. Unfortunately, Arishem abducts the former group soon after so he can probe their memories and judge if saving humanity was worth the death of a Celestial.

The mid-credit scenes picks up weeks later with the space-bound trio, who haven't heard from their siblings in a while and decide to return to Earth because they deduce what must've happened to them. However, before they have a chance to change their course, hope arrives in the form of two surprising new people who portal onto the ship: Eros, a.k.a. Starfox, a charming and adventurous Eternal played by Harry Styles, and his companion Pip, a troll voiced by Patton Oswalt. But Eros isn't just any other Eternal, he's Thanos' brother and Prince of Titan (among other things).

"Your friends are in big trouble, and we know where to find them," says Eros, revealing he possesses a golden sphere similar to the one Ajak and Sersi used to communicate with Arishem throughout the movie.

The introduction of Eros and his relationship to Thanos suggests that Josh Brolin's genocidal Mad Titan is also an Eternal, which is in line with Marvel mythology. In the Marvel lore, Thanos is a Eternal with the Deviant gene, which explains why he looks nothing like his human-appearing brother or the other Eternals.

If Thanos is also an Eternal in the MCU, then this reveal initially appears to contradict his established backstory — specifically that Titan is his home world — given what we learned about the Eternals here. For most of their lives, the Earth-based Eternals believed they hailed from the planet Olympia; however, midway midway through the movie, they discover that's false and that Arishem actually created them. Does this mean Arishem also created Thanos and Eros? (And if so, then what are we to make of the several shots of Titan we saw in both Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame?) The answer is not necessarily, at least based on the comics. In the mythology, Thanos and Eros are Eternals because their parents were. While it remains to be seen whether the MCU will stick to the canon, there's evidence that suggest it will: The Red Skull greets Thanos as "son of A'lars" — who is his father in the comics — in Avengers: Infinity War.

Thankfully, we know we'll get answers eventually because, as the end of the movie promises, the Eternals will return. Whether that's in a direct sequel or appearances in one of Marvel's many other projects remains to be seen.

The end-credits scene: Name that voice!

After the credits finish rolling, the action returns to Sersi's human boyfriend Dane Whitman (Kit Harington), who was just about to tell her about his "complicated" family history when Arishem took her. In this scene, an anxious Dane opens a case that is inscribed with the words "Death is my reward" and contains a majestic yet scary looking sword that starts whispering. Both the weapon and its prospective wielder have ties to the Marvel mythology.

In the pages of Marvel Comics, Dane is the hero Black Knight, which is a moniker that has been passed down through his family for ages along with the Ebony Blade, a magical sword. Unfortunately, the Ebony Blade is cursed and will slowly corrupt whoever wields it as more blood is shed. While it's unclear what the rules are surrounding the MCU's version of the Ebony Blade, Dane's uneasiness over picking it up indicates there is a cost to using it.

Furthermore, it's worth noting that the Eternals are at least somewhat aware of the sword's existence. Upon returning to the Domo ahead of the final battle, Thena started practicing with a real sword she found among Makkari's items and Sprite asked if it was the Ebony Blade. It wasn't. Nevertheless, this does raise some questions: How does Sprite know what the Ebony Blade is? Does Sersi know what it is and about Dane's connection to it? If so, is that why she was dating him? The most likely scenario is that Sprite and Sersi weren't aware about Dane's relationship to it, and that Sprite simply heard about the Ebony Blade over the many years she's spent on Earth.

But back to the end-credit scene: We never see Dane actually pick it up because someone, a mysterious off-screen voice, stops him. "Sure you're ready for that, Mr. Whitman?" says the deep voice.

Unfortunately, we don't find out who is speaking, but we have a couple of guesses. When EW saw the movie the first time, our initial guess was Mahershala Ali, who is set to star as Blade in an upcoming movie. Perhaps the MCU is going super literal and is establishing a connection between the Black Knight's Ebony Blade and, well, Ali's half-human vampire hunter Blade. Jeffrey Wright, who voiced The Watcher, the all-seeing multiverse observer, on Disney+'sWhat If…?,is also another possible candidate, because if anyone could suddenly appear in presumably locked room, it's him. Either way, we know it's someone we haven't met yet on the big screen, or else Marvel would've just shown them instead of leaving us in the dark life this.

Both of end-credit scenes tease there's more stories to be told about these character, however it's unclear how and where they will intersect with the rest of the MCU's characters.

Eternals is showing in theaters right now.

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