MCU Theory: The Eternals Were The Founders Of Ancient China

The Eternals could secretly be the founders of ancient China in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Marvel's Eternals movie will introduce a powerful new group into the MCU, a race of immortal beings who are basically inspired by the "ancient aliens" trope. In the comics, the Eternals were envisioned as an evolutionary offshoot of humanity who were created by the cosmic beings known as the Celestials. All signs are the MCU will follow that fairly faithfully.

Marvel Studios has recently released an Eternals poster in honor of the Lunar New Year. There's nothing new about that; the studio has long tended to celebrate Chinese New Year with a poster drop, and in fact the Eternals poster was accompanied by one for Black Widow and another for New Mutants. The Eternals poster, however, stands out from all the rest; it appears to show four of the Eternals - Thena (Angelina Jolie), Ikaris (Richard Madden), Ajak (Salma Hayek), and Phastos (Brian Tyree Henry). That's quite a curious decision, given it's generally believed the main leads of Eternals will be Gemma Chan's Sersi and Kit Harington's Black Knight. Even more unusually, the Eternals are shown flying over what appears to be China itself - the mountains to the west look to be the Kunlun range. They're also flying next to a red sun, which in Chinese symbolism refers to the source of life itself.

The artistic choices clearly seem to imply there's some sort of connection between the Eternals and China. Surprisingly, it could be that the connection is the ancient city of Babylon - and that the Eternals are secretly the founders of Chinese civilization.

The Eternals Are Strongly Associated With Babylon

In the comics, several of the Eternals are traditionally linked to the city of Babylon. Situated in what is now Iraq, Babylon was founded some 4,000 years ago. It became one of the largest cities in the world under King Hammurabi, who ruled from 1792 to 1750 BCE, and he successfully turned Babylon into one of the first great world powers. Although the Babylonian Empire was short-lived, it's remembered by historians as a key stage in the development of human culture, with one of the earliest and most complete legal codes. Eternals comics consider Hammurabi to actually be the Eternal Gilgamesh, who had somehow forgotten his own true identity. Unfortunately for Gilgamesh, Babylon became the center of a great conflict between the Eternals and their ancient enemies, the Deviants; Ajak led the Eternal forces into battle there, while Thena found her loyalties divided when she fell in love with the Deviant leader Kro.

Although Marvel recently confirmed the main plot of Eternals is set in the 21st century, the film will certainly explore the MCU's ancient history. Set photos from Eternals have shown Marvel creating a Babylonian setting on the Canary Islands, with the easily-identifiable Ishtar Gate. A building near the Gates of Babylon is believed to be the City of the Space Gods, a key location from Jack Kirby's Eternals comics.

How Babylon Could Be Tied To China In Eternals

The last century has seen intense debate among Chinese academics about the origin of their culture and civilization. In 1892, the French philologist Albert Terrien de Lacouperie proposed Chinese culture had started out in Babylon; his work was translated into Chinese in 1903, and soon captured the public imagination. By 1915 the theory was so widespread the national anthem of the republic referred to it, calling China "the famous descendant from Kunlun Peak," which Chinese mythology locates in the far West. In 1924, Sun Yat-Sen - founder of the Republic of China - stated the "growth of Chinese civilization may... be explained by the fact that the settlers who migrated from another place to this valley already possessed a very high civilization." The idea lost favor over the course of the century, with Chinese historians keen to separate China from perceived imperialist powers during and after the Second World War. And yet, the concept remains influential, and frequently resurfaces; a recent version, proposed by a geochemist named Sun Weidong, suggests China was founded by people from Egypt rather than Babylon.

The Eternals poster may subtly hint, in the MCU at least, China really was founded by settlers from ancient Babylon. As noted, the Eternals are shown flying over a fairly formless land to the east of what appear to be the Kunlun Mountains, and there's a red sun signifying creation. That may well explain why these four specific Eternals have been chosen in the poster; because they are the beings who will be linked to Babylon in the MCU, profoundly influencing the course of human development. Through their influence on Babylon, in turn they - perhaps unwittingly - create China.

The Eternals Influence On China Could Be Key To The MCU's Future

On the face of it, this would seem to be a strange and rather arbitrary idea. But it's important to remember that Hollywood is becoming increasingly aware of the importance of Asian identity after the success of Crazy Rich Asians. In fact, China is becoming one of the most important territories for superhero films, accounting for over 12 percent of Marvel Studios' box office revenue. Robert Downey Jr. has been described as almost a spiritual guru, and watching Marvel films has been compared to a coming-of-age ritual. Marvel has always liked to imagine their stories set in "the world outside your window," albeit one with superheroes and alien invasions, and as such there's no way the studio will be able to resist making inroads into Chinese culture on the big screen. It's surely no coincidence Marvel hired Chloé Zhao, a Chinese film director, screenwriter, and producer, to take charge of Eternals.

Meanwhile, there's tremendous story potential for this idea. If the Eternals were indeed secretly the founders of Chinese civilization, then it's safe to assume there would be cosmic artifacts littered around the nation. That may well explain the Mandarin, the villain of the upcoming Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings movie, who is known for wielding ten powerful rings he acquired from a crashed alien spacecraft; these could be Eternal, Deviant, or even Celestial in origin. Meanwhile, the references to the Kunlun Mountains could be far from coincidental; in the comics, the mystical city of K'un Lun is strongly associated with the immortal Iron Fist, one of Marvel's most potent martial artists. Marvel won't be able to bring Iron Fist to the big screen straight away; it's believed Marvel Television's old contracts with Netflix prohibit their using the character until September 2020 at the earliest. But they shouldn't have a problem hinting at the existence of K'un Lun in Eternals, perhaps choosing to tweak the comic book version and make it a bit more similar to the Chinese legends. After all, the myths of China claim the Kunlun Mountains were the home of Xiwangmu, sometimes described as the Queen of the Immortals; perhaps in the MCU, Xiwangmu is really Thena of the Eternals, who has ruled them on occasion.

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