Why Ajak Chose Sersi As The Next Eternals Leader

Warning! Spoilers ahead for Eternals.

After her death, Ajak (Salma Hayek) chose Sersi (Gemma Chan) to be their next leader in Eternals — why? Marvel Studios' latest superhero team has been introduced via Chloé Zhao's first MCU film. Composed of 10 main Eternals, not all of them survived the events of the film, including their head and mother-figure, Ajak.

Created by the Celestials, the Eternals were sent to Earth thousands of years ago to protect humans from Deviants. But after operating as a single unit for a while, they decided to split up, presuming that the last of their main adversaries were already killed. As more evolved versions of Deviants emerged in modern times, however, they needed to re-assemble to continue accomplishing their mandate. However, that's apparently not the primary reason for their reunion, but the so-called Emergence that would've destroyed Earth. In one of the biggest twists in Eternals, Ikaris (Richard Madden) murdered Ajak after she suggested that they stop the Emergence despite it being what the Celestials wanted. This betrayal wasn't revealed until towards the end of the film, but long before that when her body was found, Sersi was chosen by Ajak to be the next Prime Eternal.

With her love story in the middle of Eternals' story, Sersi was already a prominent character in the blockbuster. She didn't need to be the team's leader to have her own arc to stand out in a packed film. From a narrative standpoint, there were frankly other characters who could've been the new Eternals leader instead; Sersi alluded to this herself in the movie. So why did Ajak really choose her to be the next Prime Eternal? There are two things that factored into Ajak's decision. Firstly, out of all the Eternals, Sersi was the first one to be smitten and invested in humans. Initially, Ajak had no problem going through with the Emergence; it was only in the five years since Thanos' (Josh Brolin) snap did she realize how precious humanity is. Sersi never needed convincing, however. She was attached to people from the get-go. Knowing, this Ajak was sure that Sersi wouldn't let the Emergence push through. Secondly, Ajak also knew that Ikaris was fully in love with Sersi. So he wouldn't do anything to hurt his ex-wife when he would not even think twice about killing the other Eternals, just like what he did to her.

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As Eternals' ending revealed, both of Ajak's assumptions turned out to be correct. Despite Sersi's skepticism about whether or not she's worthy as the new leader of the Eternals, she came to terms with her new responsibility, with some guidance from her teammates. When she found out about the Emergence, she was dumbfounded for a while, but instead of keeping it to herself and just waiting for the catastrophe to happen, she immediately shared it with her teammates. There were some arguments, but in the end, Sersi and the majority of the Eternals sided with humanity and decided to save it instead of following the mandate from Arishem the Judge. Meanwhile, Ikaris also backed out from the thought of hurting Sersi, allowing her to stop the birth of Tiamut which would've destroyed Earth. Had it been any other member of the Eternal's character roster, Ikaris would've gone and killed them then and there for the sake of his beliefs.

Ajak's decision to choose Sersi as the new Prime Eternal proved how great she was as their leader. She knew her members quite well, leading her to make the very important decision. So while she died early in Eternals, her dying actions paved the way for Earth's survival.

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