The future of the Eternals in the Marvel Cinematic Universe continues to be a mystery as a sequel hasn’t been announced, but if Marvel wants to bring them back, their best option is not with a sequel. The MCU continues its expansion now with the Multiverse Saga, which is exploring the dangers and mysteries of the multiverse while also introducing new characters and continuing the stories of already established ones. With the original Avengers team now gone, Phase 4 introduced a new superhero team in Chloé Zhao’s Eternals, who turned out to be the oldest team in the MCU as well as one of its most powerful ones.

The Eternals are a group of synthetic beings created by the Celestial Arishem, who sent them to Earth centuries ago to get rid of the Deviants, the Eternals’ evil counterparts. Once these were defeated, the Eternals stayed on Earth and helped humanity evolve, but they weren’t allowed to interfere in their problems. This and other disagreements caused conflict between the Eternals, leading them to part ways, but reunited many years later after the death of their leader, Ajak (Salma Hayek), the return of the Deviants, and the fast approach of an apocalyptic event called “The Emergence”, which was the birth of another Celestial. Eternals was unlike any other MCU movie, but unfortunately, it felt disconnected from the rest of this universe, becoming one of the most divisive MCU movies to date.

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As Eternals ended on a major cliffhanger, the title team is expected to return, but Marvel hasn’t made the official announcement of Eternals 2 nor any other movie where the surviving Eternals could show up, leaving their future unknown. However, given the reception the first movie got and how the MCU has mostly failed to address the events of Eternals (except for an Easter egg in She-Hulk), the return of the Eternals shouldn’t be in a sequel but in a prequel TV series.

Why The MCU Should Do An Eternals Prequel Show, Not Eternals 2

At the end of Eternals, the team was divided into two: Sersi (Gemma Chan), Phastos (Brian Tyree Henry), and Kingo (Kumail Nanjiani) stayed on Earth as they had grown attached to their lives there, while Thena (Angelina Jolie), Makkari (Lauren Ridloff), and Druig (Barry Keoghan) left on the Domo. The first group was abducted by Arishem in order to judge their actions and decide if Earth was truly worth saving, while the second one was intercepted by Eros/Starfox (Harry Styles), a fellow Eternal who claims to know where to find the rest. Eternals even added the line “Eternals will return” right after its post-credits scene, so Marvel left the door open for a sequel, yet there has been no official word on when or if it will happen. However, in November 2021, screenwriters Kaz and Ryan Firpo shared they were interested in an Eternals prequel series for Disney+, in which each episode would follow an Eternal in a different time period.

An Eternals prequel series would be the best way to bring the whole team back as it would allow the audience to truly get to know them and connect with them, which is one of the things the movie failed to do. Characters like Ajak (Salma Hayek) and Gilgamesh (Don Lee) didn’t get enough screen time for viewers to get acquainted with them, so a prequel series would be the best chance for Marvel to explore their stories and fill in some gaps left by the movie. An Eternals prequel TV series would also be the solution to the “problem” of not having Harry Styles available for a sequel. Styles shared in August 2022 that he has no plans of acting in the near future, and if Marvel really wants Starfox in Eternals 2, the prequel TV series would give them enough time to get Styles back on board while fleshing out the stories of the rest of the Eternals.