The Marvel Cinematic Universe is a well-oiled machine at this point, regularly pumping out new content in theaters and on streaming with a Disney+ subscription. Fans who spent years watching the Marvel movies in order will recall that there have been some peaks and valleys since Avengers: Endgame became the highest-grossing movie of all time. One of those valleys was Chloé Zhao's Eternals, which has been largely written out of the shared universe. I just re-watched it for the first time and it lowkey slaps... but the runtime legit ruins the movie.
While Eternals won at the box office, the movie failed to really resonate with audiences. A sequel is not on the list of upcoming Marvel movies, and the events of the blockbuster were only just referenced in Captain America: Brave New World. Upon the second watch, I was reminded how much great stuff was in Eternals; the real problem is how long it is.
Eternals Was Bogged Down By Too Many Characters
This title was one of the first movies to hit theaters after Endgame, so there were some very big shoes to fill for the fandom. The critical response to Eternals wasn't exactly kind, with many journalists claiming that Zhao's blockbuster was simply too big and dense for new audiences. Moviegoers wondered why Eternals was so long, and the answer is clear: there were simply too many characters to service.
While the Russo Brothers balanced giant casts in the Avengers movies, they were established characters that we knew and loved. For Eternals, Zhao was tasked with introducing and servicing a team of ten heroes, in addition to supporting characters like Phastos' husband and Kit Harington's Dane Whitman. In order to give each of these newcomers their own personalities and histories, the movie clocked in at a whopping 2 hours and 36 minutes.
There are some ways this fate could have been avoided. For one, the team assembled for Eternals could have been smaller, freeing up real estate for Zhao to focus on fewer newcomers. Obviously, this would have needed to happen before shooting, as the cast of Eternals was full of outstanding talent.
Alternatively, more footage could have simply been left on the cutting room floor. While the filmmaker was fresh off her Oscar win for Nomadland, this long runtime for a non-crossover MCU project was unheard of at the time. If audiences didn't have to spend so much time in theaters, maybe they would have appreciated the movie's stunning visuals and epic cosmic scale.
What's even more frustrating about this is that many of the narrative threads from the blockbuster will likely never be continued. There's been no mention of a sequel for years, despite Eternals' cliffhanger ending showing half of the team taken into space by a vengeful Arishem. In the credits scenes, we were introduced to Harry Styles' Eros, before Harrington's Dane was shown with the Ebony Blade. Unfortunately, none of these characters have been seen or heard from since.
When Eternals is good, it's really good, I just wish that its runtime didn't lowkey ruin the movie (and kill the franchise before it started). The visuals of the Celestials on the big screen were especially thrilling, and I wish that we'd get to see Zhao and the cast get another attempt.
Eternals is streaming on Disney+ along with the rest of the shared universe. The next MCU movie hitting theaters is Spider-Man: Brand New Day on July 24th of next year as part of the 2026 movie release list.
