Eternals Director Used The Revenant As Inspiration For Action Sequences

Eternals director Chloé Zhao found inspiration for the film's action sequences in Leonardo DiCaprio's Oscar-winning revisionist western The Revenant. Zhao's MCU debut has been shifted around the release calendar a few times, but it's currently slated to hit theaters this November. Eternals star-studded cast is just one of the many reasons anticipation for the film is high; fans will also be looking to see if Zhao and Marvel can turn the obscure comics characters into their next smash hit, à la Guardians of the Galaxy.

Eternals is set to star Angelina Jolie, Richard Madden, Kumail Nanjiani, Salma Hayek, Kit Harrington, and Gemma Chan. On the surface, Alejandro G. Iñárritu's 2015 DiCaprio starrer is the furthest thing from a Marvel movie. Iñárritu chose to shot the film on location in the remote wilderness, using natural light throughout the entire shoot. Production on the film was described as grueling by many, and The Revenant's production lasted nearly a year, shooting from October 2014 to August 2015.

While it seems unlikely that Zhao's shoot was nearly as grueling, the auteur did tell The Playlist that she used The Revenant's action scenes as inspiration for Eternals. Zhao wanted to reference the film in her own, watching many of The Revenant's action sequences over and over again with her crew to emulate the on-location shoot. Most surprisingly, Marvel was fully on board with Zhao emulating the film, saying that the studio really went with her vision for Eternals.

Well, there’s multiple films for Eternals. I had to assign a few because of the scale of the film. But I think for the action sequences, which I just had such a great time working on with such a great team, I wanted to reference The Revenant a lot. The Revenant is a film that I love so much. And I think we’ve watched The Revenant so many times, every meeting when we come to our action sequences because most of those sequences are shot on location. And I love how immersive and the way how you feel the dash and sequences in The Revenant. It’s definitely a film that we aspire to. And Marvel really, really supported that idea and really went for it.

Leonardo Dicaprio looks at the sky with a snowy mountain in the background in The Revenant.

Zhao's work prior to her MCU debut is more in line with what's going on in The Revenant than anything in the MCU. Both The Rider and Nomadland were shot on location in the American west and used those locations for their sweeping, naturalistic cinematography. It sounds like Zhao is bringing that to the MCU, with the director previously saying that she wanted to avoid shooting in front of a green screen as much as possible. The Revenant's action scenes are also pretty brutal, using handheld camera shots to really get into the action and communicate the chaos that the characters find themselves in the midst of.

All of this portends good things for Eternals, and the fact that Marvel was on board for all of this shows they are really invested in helping Zhao see her vision through. Zhao's previous work has received near-unanimous acclaim, so it makes sense that they'd want to bring that to the MCU in any way they could. It shouldn't be long until Marvel starts rolling out promotional materials for Eternals, and this latest reveal from Zhao makes the upcoming film all the more anticipated. Zhao seems to be bringing something truly new to the MCU, and the franchise will be all the better for it.

More: Nomadland Shows How Eternals Will Look Different To Every Other MCU Movie

Source: The Playlist