Marvel surprised fans on Monday with a three-minute montage that promotes its movies in the best possible ways. It features a few of the incredible MCU moments that we’ve experienced since the first Iron Man was released in theaters, as well as teasers for upcoming attractions. Marvel revealed the titles for Black Panther 2 and Captain America 2, and it confirmed release dates for Ant-Man 3 and Guardians 3 while also teasing the Fantastic Four reboot.
One of the video’s highlights was the first footage from Eternals, one of the four MCU Phase 4 movies set to be released this year. Marvel hasn’t even released a teaser or a full trailer for the movie, which is set to premiere on November 5th. But the scenes that Marvel did show might be enough to confirm a massive Eternals leak from a few weeks ago that was packed full of spoilers. The film’s entire plot supposedly leaked in great detail from a person who was vetted before posting it on Reddit, and Marvel’s scenes from this new video seem to corroborate it.
We’ll warn you that significant spoilers follow below, so stop reading right here if you want Eternals to be a complete surprise.
The Eternals plot leak that we saw in late March came from a Marvel subreddit, with the mods explaining that they were able to verify the authenticity of the information. “This plot summary was sent to us a few days ago and was followed by undeniable evidence of factual information by the leaker,” they said at the time. The leaker’s account of the Eternal story came from a “very early test screening” that featured unfinished FX, temporary music tracks, and scenes that might not make it to the final cut.
Here’s the detail from the plot leak that matches what we just saw in Marvel’s official video:
Kingo [Kumail Nanjiani] is a Bollywood actor (there is a short dance routine that introduces this) and comes with the group along with his valet (don’t recall the name) who tries to document everything on video.
Marvel included a scene in the promo video that seems to confirm that info, which no one outside of the people involved with the film’s production would have known. We have Kingo in the forefront taking off his glasses, while a person behind him is apparently documenting everything around him.
We already knew that Nanjiani will play a Bollywood actor in Eternals who also happens to be a powerful Eternal. But this specific scene matches the detail from the plot leak from a few days ago. Unless it’s all a massive coincidence, Marvel might have inadvertently confirmed the plot leak on Reddit.
I’ve always said that Eternals is one of the most exciting films of MCU Phase 4 that will be released this year, and that was well before all these leaks started coming in — and long before director Chloé Zhao won an Oscar for Nomadland. That’s because the film features a great ensemble cast, including many new heroes who we haven’t explored in the MCU so far. Some of them will likely join the Avengers in the future. Marvel’s clip shows many of them in action, not just Nanjiani’s Kingo — here’s the clip again:
Finally, here’s the full Eternals plot leak that was leaked a few weeks ago:
There is a lot of jumping around in time to give context to various plot points – I don’t recall all of the linear order so will just include the info as part of the synopsis
Opening title card explaining the Deviants and Eternals – the Deviants were created by the Celestials to hunt predators that prey on intelligent life on newly evolving worlds, but then they started to hunt the life as well, so Celestials created the Eternals to kill the Deviants.
Opens 5000 years ago in Mesopotamia a man is fishing on some rocks with his son (?) and is attacked by a Deviant from the ocean. The Eternals show up and a short battle commences, after which they line up in a triangular “hero” pose and this rolls into the Marvel logo opening.
Jumps to present day – Sersi [Gemma Chan] and Dane Whitman [Kit Harington] are teachers in the UK and dating. During a class lesson, a large earthquake strikes, and Sersi saves a child from a falling object by turning it to sand. Later while out on a date, a Deviant attacks Sersi, Sprite [Lia McHugh], and Dane; during the battle Ikaris [Richard Madden] shows up and they fight it off after noting that they thought all the Deviants were destroyed and unlike others, the Deviant was able to heal its wounds.
The group decide to visit Ajak [Salma Hayek] as she was the leader of the group. After arriving at the midwest ranch where she is now living, they discover her dead body, A small golden device leaves Ajak’s body and enters Sersi (this is how she communicated with the Celestials) – they then decide to round up the rest of the Eternals to deal with the Deviants.
Thena [Angelina Jolie] and Gilgamesh [Ma Dong-seok] are in Australia (I think) due to an issue with her memory causing her to randomly attack the other Eternals. Gilgamesh is obviously in love with Thena but it is not played as a romantic relationship.
Phastos [Brian Tyree Henry] and his husband live with their child and he decides to help due to the fact that he has fully embraced the human race and wants to protect his family.
Makkari [Lauren Ridloff] has been living in the Eternals ship all this time (I guess, since there is a bunch of food containers and mess strewn about.
Kingo [Kumail Nanjiani] is a Bollywood actor (there is a short dance routine that introduces this) and comes with the group along with his valet (don’t recall the name) who tries to document everything on video.
Druig [Barry Keoghan] is living in some rainforest controlling a small village of people after losing faith in humanity and wanting to control them to stop war, famine, etc. Gilgamesh is killed fighting the Deviants in the forest.
Sersi learns that the Celestials created both races and that the Eternals are basically just very advanced robots. They seed young planets with a Celestial ‘egg’ that takes eons to mature. The evolving intelligent life on these planets feeds the Celestial’s growth, so the Eternals are sent to protect the evolving life forms and kill the Deviants. After the emergence, the Eternals are ‘rebooted’ and sent to another world (this is the cause of Thena’s memory issue, as she knows that the planet is doomed) – this cycle has gone on for millions of years. Earth was seeded and Tiamut is about to emerge (this was the cause of the earthquake earlier). Once awakened, the entire planet and all life will be destroyed.
They debate on what to do and some decide to try and find a way to stop the emergence. Ikaris disagrees, Sprite and Kingo are on his side but Kingo agrees to help.
Phastos designs a device (Uni-Mind) that will allow Druig to channel all the Eternals energies in the hope of controlling Tiamut and putting him back to sleep.
Sersi learns that Ikaris knew about the Celestials actual plans and this is why he left the group hundreds of years ago. He killed Ajak because she had decided to help stop the emergence and save Earth.
The group go to where Tiamut is and attempt to use the device – Ikaris and Sprite attempt to stop them. Sersi then uses the device to amplify her power and turn Tiamut to marble just as his hand and part of his head is emerging from the Indian Ocean.
Ikaris flies off into space (towards the sun – unclear if he just left or flew into the sun and killed himself), then Sersi makes Sprite a real human with what remains of her power.
A few days (?) later Thena, Makkari, and Druig leave in the ship to seek out other Eternals and try and stop the cycle of destruction. Sersi, Kingo, and Phastos stay on Earth but are then pulled into space by Arishem and vanish.
The two end credit stingers: 1) Dane is looking at an old box and pulls out a sword that is wrapped up. Just as he is about to touch it, an off screen voice stops him. 2) On the Eternals’ ship, Pip the Troll appears and introduces Starfox.
