“It was probably the windiest cliff that I have ever been on,” Zhao recalls.
“You’d have to have a helicopter to achieve the wind that we had that day.”
But other than that, it was pretty awesome."
The cast of ‘Eternals.'.Marvel Studios
(Zhao evensnuck a Marvel referenceintoNomadland,featuring a brief shot of a movie theater marquee promotingThe Avengers.)
“We thought, here’s a filmmaker who is equal parts cinematic visionary and genre nerd.
She can outtalk any of us when it comes to manga andStar Warsand Marvel comics.
The cast of ‘Eternals,’ after they were introduced on stage at San Diego Comic-Con in 2019.Eric Ray Davidson for EW
It’s quite an astounding combination.
And this movie, I think, represents all of the immense multitudes of Chloe.”
I just felt very safe.
I was like,Oh, she’s not going to let me suck at this."
It’s like a family."
Introducing the Eternals also meant bringing 10 new actors into the Marvel fold.
Zhao intentionally cast a wide net, targeting everyone from Oscar winner Jolie to 15-year-old newcomer McHugh.
“I said, ‘Forget it,'” she recalls, laughing.
“I said, ‘God knows what kind of grandmother they want me to play.’
I’m used to being [told] I’m going to be the extra or the old prostitute.
And then they said the director wasChloe Zhao, and I said, ‘Okay!
Let’s have the meeting!'”
“I don’t think we realized that until we really got there,” Jolie explains.
She wasn’t looking to put something on top of us, like a character.
She was looking for us to reveal ourselves as the character."
Each Eternal is ageless, but all have their own strengths and weaknesses.
She’s particularly close to Sprite, and she has the ability to manipulate inanimate matter around her.
“She’s not the most obviously impressive Eternal in terms of her powers,” Chan explains.
I just thought, ‘Oh, well, that might mean sometime in the future, who knows when?
Maybe he’s just being nice.’
I was really not expecting to be back so soon!"
“It would have been shooting ourselves in the foot,” Feige says of potentially not casting Chan.
Maybe we shouldn’t consider him.’
And we said, ‘No, that’s okay,’ and the rest is history."
“I have to say that was somewhat of a relief,” she says with a laugh.
“It was nice not finding blue paint in my crevices weeks later.”
That’s what balances them."
“We’ve been through a lot of ups and downs together,” Chan adds with a laugh.
“We’ve gotten drunk together, and we’ve consoled each other when we were broke.”
“I just wanted to be a part of this family,” she says.
“I have a slightly unconventional family myself, so it felt familiar.”
“We were smiling at each other, and there was just a lot of kindness.”
Keoghan, who plays the aloof Druig, remembers that first day similarly.
“I was the last one to get into costume,” he recalls.
They were like, ‘Whoa!’
It’s a weird feeling to see yourself like that.
As soon as you put the boots on, your posture transforms.
You definitely notice how your whole demeanor and everything just changes."
Thena often fights side by side with Gilgamesh, played by Lee.
“I knew this was the one,” he explains.
“I’ve always been a huge fan of Marvel, and I really loved the character of Gilgamesh.
I saw the potential for inspiring the younger generation as [the MCU’s] first Korean superhero.”
Fifteen-year-old McHugh plays Sprite, who appears as a young girl but is actually thousands of years old.
McHugh (The Lodge) describes her as “a very old soul.”
She also can project realistic illusions.
“He loves it.
He loves being a movie star.
He can shoot beams out of his hands.
There are no downsides to Kingo’s life.”
For Henry, he also connected withEternals’themes of heroism and how these otherworldly figures fit into the world.
And it literally brings everyone together regardless of where you’re from.
I’m still freaking out that I’m a part of it."
Finally, rounding out the cast isWalking Deadalum Ridloff as the super speedy Makkari.
“We couldn’t go more opposite to the original with this casting.
And they considered me a woman, Black, deaf to play this role.”
These are unique, flawed, and complicated individuals, just like you and I.
That’s what drew me to these actors.
That’s what drew me to the story of each of the characters."
Eternalsis largely a standalone story, focusing specifically on these 10 characters and their journeys together.
Still, the Avengers probably could’ve used the help.)
“She has that sort of DIY aesthetic,” Nanjiani says.
Just put the camera here!’
Everyone was like, ‘Oh no, no, no, Chloe get down from there!
It’s an insurance hazard!'"
Together, Zhao says, they form the kind of complex group she’d always dreamed of spotlighting.
But almost right away, I felt like they each found their place in the family unit."
Art courtesy of Marvel Studios.
Photography by Marco Grob.
