The year 2021 was most anticipated for Marvel movies and shows alike. While some of them, like Spider-Man: No Way Home and Shang-Chi were smash hits, others like Black Widow faced a different fate. But there was another film released in 2021 — Eternals, a movie about a community of immortal beings with superhuman powers who have secretly lived on Earth for thousands of years and reunited to battle the evil Deviants.
Although this movie is a little different from other Marvel movies, audiences, especially non-Marvelites had to face a hard time watching this one — because there’s something about it that didn’t quite click.
Eternals Ended on Some Big Cliffhangers
The 2021 MCU film Eternals is regarded as the worst due to its Rotten Tomatoes score. But originally, it had a “really bleaker” and a much darker ending than what audiences saw in theaters. Director Chloe Zhao spilled the beans to Empire Online that the project originally had a very different ending:
“The film originally had a much darker ending: ‘It used to end with everybody back on the ship, minds erased and just going on to another planet, like The Twilight Zone.”
She continued:
“I remember when it goes to black, everyone was like, “I don’t know what to do”. And also, it’s the MCU, and you want to be excited for what’s next.”
Indeed, the alternate ending would have been a bolt from the blue. Also, it’s hard to imagine reaching the end of Eternals‘ two-and-a-half-hour runtime and being hit by such a dramatic twist.
However, according to Zhao, this ending change wasn’t due to the interference from the studio, rather it was just a natural part of the filmmaking process.
What Would Have Been the Original Ending of Eternals?
The established folklore in Eternals shows that the team had visited different planets over their lifetimes, where their memories get erased after each Celestial’s emergence.
It happens except for Earth, where Tiamut emerged. But the original ending would have seen the Eternals’ memories wiped and them moving to another planet, (kind of) similar to the film’s beginning.
This alternate ending would have taken Eternals in a much darker direction and made the events and character introductions almost meaningless.
The newly formed superhero team would have lost their memories of Earth, making their future involvement with the Avengers and their emotional deaths unimportant. This scenario would have replaced the fallen Eternals with new ones (as the Celestials moved on to another planet) — altering the characters’ journeys and sacrifices.
Source: Screen Rant
