➡WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD⬅

Hold on tight, because Phase Four is going to be a long and exciting ride for all the MCU lovers. 

We are saying goodbye to the original six heroes from the Avengers series and saying hello to the new 10. We enter Phase Four of the Marvel Cinematic Universe to meet the Eternals on November 5, 2021, where new characters were introduced, character backstories and relationships were revealed, and a new heartfelt storyline began its journey in the Marvel films, all bringing happiness to the hearts of MCU fans.

The movie starts off with a warm welcome to the Eternals, a race of humanoid alien immortals created by celestials. They “supposedly” play a role in protecting humans on Earth from unstable creatures that devour anything in their path, Deviants, but in actuality, they play an even bigger part than just the evolution of humanity for around 7,000 years.

A quick run-through of the 10: according to a CNN Entertainments article pertaining to the Eternals and their abilities, they are said to have superhuman strength and immortality as a whole due to being aliens. 

We begin with the Sersi (Gemma Chan), the Transmuter Eternal with the biggest heart. Sersi holds the power of changing the matter of objects into other natural forms and has a strong appreciation for humanity.

Ikaris (Richard Madden), aka the Clark Kent superhero, with similar powers to Superman himself, Ikaris is the most powerful Eternal in this group and he can fly, shoot laser beams out of his eyes, is inherently fast, and had a long-term relationship with the Eternal Sersi.

Ajak (Salma Hayek), the mother-like figure of the group, is a Regenerative Eternal who can heal anyone and cure severe wounds. She is the leader of The Eternals and holds the closest relationship with Arishem. 

Sprite (Lia McHugh), the manipulative illusionist Eternal whose form is eternally a teenager, can create illusions to distort her enemies. Phastos (Brian Tyree), the innovator Eternal, has technopathy, which is the power to invent anything that comes to mind.

Makkari (Lauren Ridloff) is the Speedster Eternal who has super speed. Druig (Barry Keoghan) is the mind control Eternal who can exploit the minds of his enemies and endearingly has the heart of the Eternal Makkari. Kingo (Kumail Nanjiani), the Handgun Eternal, shoots energy from his fingertips and can create even bigger blasts if concentration goes into it.

Thena (Angelina Jolie), the combatant Eternal, has superhuman sparring and can create weapons from her powers. Lastly, Gilgamesh (Don Lee) is the physically strongest Eternal with superhuman strength. He holds a strong bond with Thena.

The premise of the movie was that the Eternals were sent by Arishem, a powerful Celestial being capable of creating galaxies, to protect humans from Deviants so that humanity can evolve with technological advances so that humans can thrive along with them living through their destined timeline.

After thousands of years, eight of the 10 Eternals come to find out their original task was always to make sure humanity progresses so that the celestial planted in Earth by Arishem would feed off of the energy and later erupt from the Earth’s core while destroying the planet through the process, “The Emergence.”

The Eternals, due to their experience being on Earth, have grown to love humanity and appreciate the flaws along with the beauty of humans. This leads to the close friends fighting for what they believe is right, facing evolving Deviants and making a plan in efforts to stop “The Emergence” while coming across betrayals and deceit from the ones closest to them.

Throughout the movie, we get to see the forming of profound and intimate relationships between the Eternals which portrays the influence humanity has on these beings. It’s surprising to see which couples captured the eyes of fans the most. In total, there are three separate main ships along with an extended Eternal who is jealous of the main couple creating even more tension and suspense.

The couple who stole the show happened to be none other than Makkari the speedster and Druig the mind controller. Through the film, whether it be a tension-filled scene or even a scene filled with humor, this dynamic duo’s chemistry was unmatched and the connection they had never disappeared. 

Their relationship spanned for centuries and the flirtatious scenes such as the Emerald Tablet scene and the iconic line, “My beautiful, beautiful Makkari” flooded the hearts of many and became just as more impactful. The story of their relationship gets even better when we find out Chloé Zhao, director of The Eternals, initially didn’t push to make “Drukkari’s” relationship apparent in the script but she learned quickly that their relationship had already bloomed and was difficult to stop onscreen.

“Lauren, you remember, it was your first time meeting Barry, the two of you started [to] just riff,” Zhao stated at a Conference on an article from Distractify. “You know you start to improvise. And I go… what? What’s happening? Sparks everywhere. And ‘cause initially, that was not the intention. I think really it was from you guys meeting that we saw that, and go, ‘Maybe we should let play into it.’” 

Adding to the love of these two, Makkari, played by Lauren Ridloff, is the first deaf superhero and is a woman of color. After seeing the couple trending on TikTok along with the impact it had on Twitter is astounding because this side couple had managed to capture the audience more than the main couple and that truly reveals the power these two held and the authenticity of their connection. 

On Twitter, many fans shared their love and positive thoughts about the couple.

“The way Makkari and Druig didn’t see each other for centuries but still fell into their rhythm of being flirty with each other I love them sm,” one fan wrote on Twitter, (@waltersndanvers).

As difficult as it was to stop thinking about them, the other two relationships were just as memorable and sweet. The main couple in The Eternals was Sersi and Ikaris. Their relationship lasted centuries and their connection clicked from the beginning of their mission. Ikaris grew to love Sersi and vice versa, and the scenes of them together show a strong love and passion.

Another set of side characters that contributed to the love flying in the air, Thena and Giglamesh were ride or die. This couple has more varying opinions from the fans on if they are more romantically involved or platonically, but we see many scenes that show the devotion and care these soulmates hold, a love that is one willing to die for the other.

The last extended Eternal who caused drama and surprise to the fans was Sprite when her love for Ikaris is revealed. Being that Sprite’s form is a young teenage girl along with Sersi and Ikaris’s being in a relationship became obstacles and we see why Sprite didn’t try to pursue anything with the man that she grew to love. Her jealousy festered and over time we see how this causes issues towards the end of the movie. These new characters were very complex and revealed a different side of everyone.

On the note of new characters, four very new characters were introduced in the two post-credit scenes, as Marvel always does. It was very exciting to see as they play into superheroes branching from separate movies truly drawing in the intertwined ways of the Marvel films. From Buzzfeed’s article on special details found in The Eternals movie, we learn about the two new characters, Eros and Pip.

Two big fandoms joined together — those who love Marvel and Harry Styles was a dream come true when he made an appearance in the mid-credit scene of The Eternals. We are introduced to Eros, AKA Starfox. Eros is an Eternal from Titan as well as being Thanos’s brother. His abilities consist of controlling people’s emotions and the assistance he will provide for the Eternals will show up in the next movies to come.

Right beside Harry was Pip the Troll played by Patton Oswalt. Pip is a character from the comics, where he’s often affiliated with Adam Warlock (Will Poulter) connecting directly to Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.

Featured throughout the film as just Sersi’s boyfriend, Dane Whitman is revealed to be Black Knight (Kit Harrington) in the end. In the post-credit scenes, Dane opens a box that holds the Ebony blade, which is like a corrupt alternative to Excalibur. Throughout the movie, there were easter eggs relating to Black Knight’s bloodline, such as the Holy Grail in the scene where the Eternals reunited with Makkari who was surrounded by treasures, or when Sersi tells Dane to reconcile with his uncle because his uncle was John Garrett, the previous owner of the Ebony Blade and now Dane Whitman will Forge a new Legacy of Black Knight.

At last, at the end of the second post-credit scene, you hear the voice of Mahershala Ali who will be Blade in the new MCU movie soon. In the comics, Blade is a vampire Hunter which ultimately raises some questions about his relation to Black Knight and how they will interact in their upcoming movies.

“Marvel Studios hasn’t even given the Blade solo film a release date or confirmed plans for Kit Harington Black’s Knight after Eternals; however, the film has post-credit scene directly tied to Black night and played together, which could be an important sign of what will come next,” according to ScreenRant.

It’s interesting to think about how these characters will come about and what’s new to come in the upcoming Marvel movies. The Eternals altogether welcomed fascinating heroes, beautiful character relationships, new character introductions, and a very complex and interesting story. In the end, it makes MCU fans very excited to see what comes next. Aren’t you?