New Eternals Trailer Poses A Very Good Question

If you've been wondering how the upcoming Eternals film fits into the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe, you certainly aren't alone. Today, Marvel debuted a new trailer for the movie, and those connections to the MCU are becoming clearer. In fact, it seems that the events of Avengers: Endgame directly tie into this movie.

The new trailer wastes little time diving into exposition. In the trailer's opening moments, Ajak (portrayed by Salma Hayek) gives Ikaris (Richard Madden) a speedy rundown of the events of both Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. Apparently, the Avengers bringing everyone back in Endgame was the catalyst for a new crisis called The Emergence, which the Eternals will be working to stop in this movie.

The Emergence Ajak refers to is likely the arrival of the Deviants – enemies that the Eternals have reunited to fight in this very flick. Since the Eternals have knowledge of the conflict between the Avengers and Thanos, it begs the question of why they didn't assist in fighting Thanos or bringing those who were snapped into oblivion back from the dead.

In fact, at one point in the trailer, Dane Whitman (Kit Harrington) poses that exact question to Sersi (Gemma Chan), who says that the Eternals are forbidden from interfering in human conflicts unless the Deviants are involved. With the Deviants seemingly threatening humanity in this movie, the Eternals can emerge from hiding in plain sight and band together to stop the threat.

Eternals is the third movie in phase four of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, following Black Widow and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, the latter of which premieres next month. Eternals is slated to debut on November 5th, 2021.