The Celestials Created MCU’s Eternals, Officially Confirmed

The production designer for Eternals has confirmed that the MCU's versions of the characters were created by the Celestials. Tickets are now available on pre-sale for Eternals, which opens on November 5. It is the upcoming third film in Phase 4 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Directed by Academy Award winner Chloé Zhao, the film will star Gemma Chan, Richard Madden, Kit Harington, Salma Hayek, Angelina Jolie, Kumail Nanjiani, and Brian Tyree Henry. Dan Stevens is rumored to appear as the Deviant villain Kro, which has yet to be confirmed, though the actor hinted heavily at this during a recent interview.

The Eternals are one of Marvel Comics' lesser-known properties, having only run for a few limited series since their creation by Jack Kirby in 1976. The limited amount of storylines featuring the characters allows Marvel more leeway in their interpretation, since fewer fans will have expectations of how the characters will look and behave in the upcoming film adaptation. However, a major narrative point for the characters in the comics is that they were created by the Celestials, extraterrestrial cosmic beings who performed genetic experiments on early humans, creating the Eternals and their evil counterparts, the Deviants.

During Screen Rant's visit to the set of Eternals in January 2020 along with a group of reporters, production designer Eve Stewart confirmed that, in the MCU, the Celestials officially created the Eternals. When discussing how she and Zhao approached creating the spaceship in the film, she explained that "the Celestials are gods and they've created the Eternals." Stewart then went on to describe how they used "sacred geometry" and "symbolism from every religion across the world." Read the full quote here:

"So what we really want to do, Chloé and I, weeks and months ago, were talking about trying not to make the spaceship into anything we've seen before. And also because the Celestials are gods and they've created the Eternals, we wanted to somehow look at sacred geometry, and look at the symbolism from every religion across the world that kind of means something."

In the film, the Eternals will be forced to reunite to defend Earth from an onslaught of Deviants. Thus, the Celestials will weigh heavily on the minds of the characters, considering that they wouldn't be caught in this eons-long battle against their twisted counterparts if it wasn't for their creators. It is unknown how much the film will go into the backstory of the Celestials themselves, but they certainly have the potential to become major figures in the MCU going forward.

Whether or not the Celestials are physically present, they have rightly informed the filmmakers' approach to creating the overall look of Eternals. A major through line of the film is that the titular immortal beings' guiding force has been reflected by humanity's religions throughout time. This is a similar backstory to that of Thor, in which early people were inspired by real-life characters to create gods and monsters. Naturally, the symbolism that surrounds them needs to look like it could have influenced religions across the world and form a blend of them all, and it will be extremely interesting to see how Stewart and her production design team have pulled this off in the final cut.

Next: Why Eternals Needs To Be Longer Than Infinity War