Eternals Director Chloe Zhao Explains Why They Couldn't Interfere in Avengers: Infinity War or Endgame

09/15/2021 09:13 pm EDT

The next film from Marvel Studios, Chloe Zhao's Eternals, will introduce a race of powerful ancient beings to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, significantly expanding the on-screen world as we know it. Of course, their introduction comes with plenty of questions about how they've spent their time to this point, mainly in regards to the attack from Thanos and why they chose to do nothing. This was briefly addressed in the official Eternals trailer, but the film's director is assuring fans that there will be plenty of explanation in the movie itself.

While speaking to Total Film for its newest issue, Zhao was asked about the complicated relationship the Eternals have with the people of Earth. According to Zhao (as well as the trailer), the heroes were specifically instructed not to interfere, and those instructions came from the Celestials themselves, long before Thanos or any of the other Avengers characters were born.

"[The audience] will understand why," Zhao told Total Film. "Not only why, but how complicated not interfering made them feel. We explore that. You'll see that in the film. The Eternals were instructed not to interfere with any human conflict unless Deviants are involved. There's a reason why that's the case. And that was the instruction from the prime Celestial Arishem."

Eternals spans thousands of years, so we will get to see the origin of these beings in the MCU. That means we will also learn about their relationship to the Celestials and why they were specifically instructed not to help the people of Earth, even in their most desperate moments. 

"What excited me is the idea of going back in time, and exploring [the time] before Thanos was born, before anyone was born," Zhao continued. "Where does the MCU go back in time? And that brings us to the mythology of the Celestials. Anything involving the Celestials is going to be at a huge scale level of complication, let's put it that way."

When all is said and done, and we've sat through the credits of Eternals later this year, fans everywhere will likely have a much deeper understanding of these ancient heroes. Hopefully, going forward in the MCU, they'll be sticking around to "interfere" a lot more often.

Are you looking forward to the arrival of Marvel's Eternals? Let us know in the comments!

Eternals arrives exclusively in theaters on November 5th.

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