Eternals Is Just the Plot of Steven Universe

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Photo-Illustration: Vulture; Photos by Cartoon Network and Walt Disney Studios

There are a lot of reasons Eternals, Marvel’s most recent phase-launcher now streaming on Disney+, falls short; the brilliant Angelica Jade Bastién has already laid out a number of them. There’s the Richard Madden–shaped charisma hole at its center, the jokes that sink like cement shoes, and oy, more weightless CGI monster fights. But here’s one more indictment against the MCU’s latest: Steven Universe did its plot first, and better.

Spoilers ahead.

Rebecca Sugar’s animated series Steven Universe ran on Cartoon Network from 2013 to 2019, and if you spend a lot of your online life in queer nerd spaces, you probably already know its whole deal. If not, it follows a (half-) human kid named Steven being raised by the Crystal Gems, powerful members of an advanced alien race of immortals who have lived on Earth among its people for around 6,000 years. Some are homesick for their Homeworld, but all of them have grown to love Earth and the imperfect people who inhabit it.

This is more or less the Eternals’ deal, too: They’re a group of superpowerful, immortal emissaries from space, living on Earth among its people for around 7,000 years. Like the Crystal Gems, they’ve occasionally crossed paths with and influenced human development. The Eternals introduced certain technologies like irrigation and the plough. The Crystal Gems’ presence impacted human life so that the show’s universe differs in small but notable ways from ours (the U.S. only has 39 states; the film industry is based in Kansas instead of California). Some characters are homesick: The Eternals’ speedster Makkari stays camped out in their spaceship, dreaming of when they can return to their home planet Olympia, while SU characters Pearl and Peridot fixate on returning to Homeworld. Others, like SU’s Amethyst and Eternals’ Sersi, enjoy the company of humans and the indulgences of human culture.

When Steven Universe begins, the Crystal Gems are unambiguously presented as good guys who spend their days saving Earth from monsters. They battle these monsters with unique weapons that only they can manifest: Garnet can summon giant, powerful fists; Pearl uses a sort of spear; and trickster younger-sister type Amethyst shape-shifts.

When Eternals begins, the Eternals are unambiguously presented as good guys who spend their days saving Earth from monsters. They battle these monsters with unique weapons that only they can manifest: Gilgamesh can summon giant, powerful fists; Thena uses a sort of spear; and trickster younger-sister type Sprite shape-shifts.

I acknowledge that the characters and mythos of the Eternals comics are far older than Steven Universe, and that many of these science-fiction and superhero tropes were established by Marvel and 20th-century American comic books in the first place. But here is where things begin to overlap in a way that doesn’t flatter Eternals by comparison.

We soon learn that the Crystal Gems’ position on Earth is more complicated than the show first let on. For one, the monsters they’ve been fighting are actually Corrupted Gems, and they’re more intelligent than their animalistic forms let on. Turns out, the Gem race was sent to Earth by a small group of massive, powerful space deities called the Diamonds to exploit a lesser planet. The Diamonds planted a massive cluster of fused Gems at the center of the Earth’s core, and this cluster, which has been dormant and incubating for millennia, will soon awaken as one gargantuan being and burst out of the Earth, destroying it.

Thus sums up both the A- and B-plots of Eternals. The action is sparked by the death of the group’s leader, Ajak, much like how Steven Universe begins with the death of the Crystal Gems’ leader, Steven’s mother Rose Quartz. The Eternals believed they were put on Earth to fight monsters called Deviants, but they soon learn that the Deviants are more intelligent and advanced than they used to be. They also learn that the only reason that the massive, powerful space deities called the Celestials (led by the one named Arishem) sent them to fight Deviants was to preserve Earth long enough to incubate a giant, dormant Celestial at the Earth’s core, which will soon awaken and burst out of the Earth, destroying it.

So the Gems/Eternals must defy the will of the Diamonds/Arishem and stop the Cluster/Celestial at the Earth’s core from awakening and busting the planet to bits. Both situations seem hopeless, but Steven Universe’s Steven and Eternals’ Druig both use an amplified psychic power to reach and subdue the sentient threat in the center of the Earth.

Where the two stories differ is in what themes these extremely similar plots are used to explore. When the Eternals learn that they’re essentially space robots who cannot evolve, it’s bittersweet, but only within the framework of the film’s Randian obsession with themes of evolution and progress. Director Chloé Zhao told Variety that she intended for Eternals to be infused with a Taoist philosophy similar to Steven Universe’s, saying, “In our society, in the stories we tell about ourselves, we often emphasize and celebrate masculine strength — the strength of constant action, of winning, of innovating and expending. In Eternals, we wanted to explore the feminine strength in all of us — the strength that comes from vulnerability, love, forgiveness and ‘actionless action.’” These are beautiful ideas that are not reflected in the film’s chilly, bird’s-eye view of humanity. It only zooms in on actual people at moments of productivity and industriousness: the agrarian economy, the efficient film set, the American suburban home.

Meanwhile, when the Crystal Gems marvel at humans’ un-Gem-like ability to grow and change, it’s more about the freedom to err, learn, accept each other, love each other, and live as one’s honest identity. In Steven Universe, when two gems fuse, it’s an act of trust and love that is stigmatized and forbidden on their home planet. In this way, fusion is queer-coded, and this fantastical device is used to introduce nonbinary characters like Stevonnie and gay relationships like Ruby and Sapphire, whose existence is central to the show’s plot and worldview. And because fusion is introduced to the viewer as such an intimate and meaningful act, the Cluster is terrifying not only because it threatens to destroy the Earth, but because it was made by force, without its composite gems’ consent. Eternals’ Celestials, meanwhile, are just an inversion of Marvel’s stale old Act Three threat of “giant hole in the sky.” A generous reading could cast the final rift between Sersi and Ikaris as a pro-choice allegory, with the unsympathetic zealot Ikaris bullishly insisting that it’s worth carrying the Celestial to term and destroying the beings of Earth without their consent because it will create potential, future life. But that’s, like, a galaxy-brain stretch; it takes some squinting.

And while the cast of Eternals is admirably diverse, that diversity has been used as a shield by MCU fans against genuine criticisms of the film. Brian Tyree Henry’s character Phastos gives a small, impassioned speech toward the end of the movie about how he cherishes his son and his husband, and how he lives for himself and not for any Celestial. But the kiss he shares with his husband earlier in the movie is the sort of thing that a homophobic censor could cut out, with the rest of the film remaining largely identical. In fact, this has already happened in certain film markets. Queerness, identity, and diversity of bodies in Eternals are not as thematically, explicitly crucial to the plot as they are in Steven Universe. The Gems of Steven Universe all fight for Earth because it’s a place where they can make chosen families, find euphoria in the fullest expression of their identities, and dance and transform and kiss whomever they want. It’s what makes us care about all of these characters, not just one out of ten. If Marvel had the courage of its convictions, Eternals could have been something special. Steven Universe is a taste of what it could have been.

Also, Steven Universe has more interesting color palettes than just “all golden hour always,” and the jokes actually land. So.

Eternals Cast: Why was Kit Harrington’s screen time cut short if he is Black Knight?

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Eternals, the third cinematic installment of Phase 4 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe now available on Disney +, has introduced a whole new group of superheroes: the Eternals, a race of super humans created by the Celestials to protect Earth. But they aren’t the only characters to make their debut in the Chloé Zhao-directed film. We can also find Kit Harington playing Dane Whitman, the future Black Knight.

The Game Of Thrones actor carries very little screen time in Eternals and is presented as just an employee of the Natural History Museum in London and current boyfriend of Sersi (Gemma Chan). Only at the end of the film, in the second post-credit scene fans were able to get a glimpse of the true potential of this character in future installments of the MCU.

Who is the Black Night?

In the comics, Dane Whitman is a member of MI13, a highly secretive intelligence agency whose goal is to protect the United Kingdom from magical, alien, and superhuman threats. What allows this character to join this elite group is his family legacy and the Ebony Blade, a very powerful weapon handed down for generations.

The comics say that this sword was created by Merlin, the famous sorcerer of Arthurian legends, from the meteorite called Starstone. Merlin worked alongside Sir Percy of Scandia to turn this meteor into different weapons.

They not only shaped the Ebony Blade, but also a dagger, a chalice, and a shield. The sword, meanwhile, was made to be the dark counterpart to King Arthur’s Excalibur. As with Thor’s Mjölnir, the Ebony Blade is connected to its owner.

The first to adopt the identity of Black Knight was Sir Percy, the ancestor of Dane Whitman. Hence, Harington’s character tells Sersi in Eternals that his family’s story is complicated.

Eternals deleted scenes and the Black Knight in the MCU

Even though Harrington has an epic last scene where we also hear the voice of Mahershala Ali as Blade, the character had a much bigger role in the film. Now that the movie is available on Disney+, some additional scenes have made their way online.

Eternals might be the film that introduced us to Dane Whitman and the Ebony Blade, but the sword was going to originally appear for the first time in Doctor Strange. Barry Gibbs, head of props for the film starring Benedict Cumberbatch, said in 2016 that the sword was going to debut in the first installment about Marvel’s Sorcerer Supreme. Does this mean that we’ll see more of the character in Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness? What will his role be now that he’s met Blade? The only thing we know for sure is that the supernatural will play a big role in Marvel’s next entries and we can’t wait.

Why Marvel’s Eternals Is Much Better the Second Time Around

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Ostensibly, the extended time we spend with these strange beings until they truly question whether they can break their programming and thus avoid a new Celestial hitting execute lets us experience the boredom of immortality, those questions of purpose that we are all burdened with, and the humdrum existence of waiting for a cycle to end when you don’t know if there even is an end. But because neither we nor the Eternals know how weird and messed up their whole deal is until so late in the game, their journey to personal and group agency doesn’t really feel that engaging until we revisit the story a second time.

Strange Choices

Some of the unnatural dialogue and decision-making in Eternals is also easier to parse when you know that these are synthetic beings we’re dealing with. When Kit Harington’s Dane Whitman questions why Sersi and the Eternals didn’t intervene in Thanos’ Snap, she replies that they were ordered not to. As a human, Dane is puzzled, but the Eternals’ non-action more fully checks out when you understand what they were built and programmed for.

The casting of Bodyguard star Richard Madden as Ikaris may have seemed like an odd choice given his stoic performances in other projects, but for a superman who isn’t a man at all, he’s pretty perfect. Ikaris is the movie’s villain in as much as there is a “villain” in the circle of life, and we understand how much he has sacrificed to commit to it.

Ikaris’ decision to blow off his long romance with Sersi, kill Ajak, and play a key role in seeing the Eternals’ mission through to the bitter end also makes sense when you understand he’s just more aligned with his task than the others, who have begun to imagine themselves as champions of humanity. When he fails to complete his assignment, Ikaris chooses to self-destruct and accept oblivion rather than carry on being Arishem’s least appreciated Deviant-cleaning machine. Even his joke about leading the Avengers becomes wildly wry on second viewing: it’s funny because he’s probably the last one you could count on to defend the Earth from any new threats.

Kingo’s decision to peace out of the Eternals’ final confrontation also remains compelling. We warm to him the most because he is cavalier and sarcastic, so it really hits home when he decides that he no longer wants any part in either Arishem’s plan or the Eternals’ rebellion. A second viewing of Eternals, knowing that Kingo is going to be the one to walk away, inspires some pretty interesting reflection on what it means to be an entertainer who isn’t programmed to be entertained.

It’s a Vampire Movie

And not just because the voice of our new Blade pops up in the post-credits scene! Though the sound of Mahershala Ali’s dulcet tones following the conclusion of Eternals makes a lot of sense in the context of Dane Whitman’s Black Knight future, and though the filmmakers have been honest about how many different characters they considered dropping in there, a quasi-cameo from Marvel’s new Daywalker feels like kismet in the context of the film’s themes.

Did Ikaris Kill Himself At End of Eternals? Why Did Ikaris Fly Into the Sun

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The following story contains spoilers for Marvel’s Eternals (2021).

Perhaps the most surprising thing about Eternals was that, in the end, not all of the Eternals were such good guys. While the movie spends a large chunk of its 2.5 hour+ runtime introducing viewers to these new beings and their longtime friendships, relationships, and bonds, almost all the characters seem to either look up to or be in love with Ikaris (Richard Madden), the Superman-like de facto leader of the group. In the comics, Ikaris is a He-Man-looking hero who almost always does the right thing and saves the day; so it comes as a shock to everyone in the film when it turns out that he’s actually the movie’s de facto villain, responsible for killing Ajak (Salma Hayek) and trying, essentially, to bring upon the end of planet Earth and human life.

There’s a lot of story to cover in Eternals, but let’s basically just put it all in a nutshell: the Eternals were created by Arishem, a giant being in the sky who oversees the creation of all-powerful beings called Celestials. While the Eternals at the story’s center believe themselves to be organic beings, a twist basically reveals that they’re super advanced robots. Kind of weird! Anyway, Arishem wants the Eternals to make sure that “The Emergence,” happening on Earth, occurs, and that a new celestial can be born. This, basically, would be good for the universe, but bad for planet Earth, destroying the planet and wiping out the human race.

Most of the Eternals, led by Sersi (Gemma Chan), eventually agree this is wrong and try to go against Arishem and stop this; Ikaris is still loyal to the giant being in the sky and goes against them. After a struggle, Ikaris is tied down, and when all the Eternals put their powers together (a “Uni-Mind”) behind Sersi, they’re able to stop the Emergence and turn the new celestial into marble, saving Earth. Ikaris, afterwards, feels extreme guilt—he flies off the planet, directly into the sun.

Marvel Studios

I guess he’s dead? Kind of hard to survive that one. But either way, it clears up Sersi to have a nice clean relationship with Dane Whitman (Kit Harington), who, it turns out, has a secret of his own. Uh oh. But a bunch of the Eternals end up floating in space anyway, so we’ll put a pin in all that for now.

But let’s dive a bit deeper into the whole Ikaris thing, shall we?

So, did Ikaris kill himself when he flew into the sun in Eternals or what?

Well, officially speaking, that was the intent. We don’t have to do all that much speculation here—Eternals screenwriter Kaz Firpo spelled it out in an interview with CBR:

“What is the melting point of an Eternal? How long does it take to literally melt an Eternal robot?” he said. “For what it’s worth… yeah, it was always that. He can’t bear to face his family after what he’s done, which he realizes.”

“I don’t think that Ikarus even thinks that he’s wrong. I think that he just has so much regret. He’s very sorry. I think he’s sorry for the way he lived his whole life on this planet, and that’s a lot of burden to carry,” he explained. “So really, that act is basically saying, ‘I made a mistake, but I can’t face my family, and I can’t go on living.’”

“It began as an exile that I think, throughout the course of the filmmaking, really became something that needed to be definitive. It really is a moment of saying, ‘It’s sacrifice.’ It’s sort of saying, ‘I can’t serve the Eternals. If I can’t serve the Celestials, and I can’t be with my family, then I choose this third option,’ which—for him—really is oblivion. So yeah, he dead.”

There’s also the whole not-exactly-subtle reference to Greek mythology; you’ve surely heard the phrase “Icarus flew too close to the sun.” That story is about someone who created his own wings out of wax to gain the power of flight before literally flying too close to the sun before they melted and he fell and died; this Ikaris simply over-estimated his place in the world and power. Both are cases of overconfidence.

But let’s not act like these things can’t get retconned, or similar things haven’t in the past. Do you think Marvel really planned to bring Red Skull back after Captain America: The First Avenger 7 full years later, played by a different actor, for Avengers: Infinity War? Probably not. That’s not exclusive to the MCU either—part of the glory of Comic Book storytelling, and the film and television that’s based on it, is that any new writer or creative storyteller can basically go back and remold whatever it is to fit their liking.

Even look at something that wasn’t necessarily life or death stakes like the status of Mjolnir in the MCU. In Thor: Ragnarok, Taika Waititi had Mjolnir destroyed in a way to basically have Thor learn as a character that he didn’t need to be defined by his weapon of choice and worthiness meter, Mjolnir. The Russo Brothers then basically wrote that Thor did need a weapon to have a chance against Thanos in Infinity War, giving him the Axe Stormbreaker and then him finding Mjolnir again in Endgame. Both things worked! It’s justa classic Comic Book-style move to have each creator sort of do what they want with the character and how they interact with the world around them.

Is Ikaris returning to the MCU any time soon?

Marvel Studios

Coincidentally, just as Eternals landed on Disney+, rumors began circling online that Ikaris could be making a surprise return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

These rumors were rooted in the fact that a TikTok user named Emmy Kennard said in a post that her stunt double brother would be playing a returning MCU character in his next role; the only MCU role to date for her brother, Joe Kennard, is for Richard Madden as Ikaris in Eternals.

Now, obviously that far from confirms anything; if you look at Kennard’s IMDB, you can see that he also doubled for actor Wyatt Russell in Overlord. The way her post is phrased—“When your brother is a stunt double and his next job is a character coming back into the MCU”—kind of makes it sound like he’ll be doubling a different character and actor. This could very easily be Russell’s John Walker/US Agent, who was introduced in 2021’s The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and will likely be a part of the next Captain America movie.

We’ll have to wait and see. It could still be a returning Ikaris—the Eternals are basically super-advanced robots, so they could always just repair his torched body or, you know, build another one. There’s also the whole multiverse angle, so we could see a “variant” Ikaris. Who knows! A lot of food for thought, really, but none of it is off the table.

Evan Romano Evan is an associate editor for Men’s Health, with bylines in The New York Times, MTV News, Brooklyn Magazine, and VICE.

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Marvel and WEBTOON Present ‘Eternals: The 500 Year War’

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This vertical Infinity Comics series spotlights the Eternals in their past encounters during the 500 Year War against the Deviants around the world. While fighting the Deviants, readers will get to witness the Eternals interact with different cultures of the human race across time through the cultural artifacts that were gifted to them.

Each issue will have an international creative team of writers and artists from the respective country that the story is being told in. The rotating creative line-up includes writers Dan Abnett, Aki Yanagi, Jongmin Shin, Ju-Yeon Park, David Macho, Rafael Scavone, Yifan Jiang; artists Geoffo, Rickie Yagawa, Do Gyun Kim, Magda Price, Marcio Fiorito; and Gunji. Colorists also include Matt Milla, Carlos Macias, Fernando Sifuentes, Pete Pantazis, and Felipe Sobreiro.

“Bringing ETERNALS: THE 500 YEAR WAR to Marvel Unlimited will open up doors for our international creative teams to tell much more personal stories by setting them in their homelands,” says C.B. Cebulski, Editor-in-Chief of Marvel. “These stories also break down borders and provide excitement beyond anything fans can imagine with these diverse, multi-cultural characters.”

“Marvel’s Eternals are the perfect fit for WEBTOON readers around the world: a global narrative crossing borders and boundaries, and a diverse new cast of heroes, all available in an innovative mobile format,” said David Lee, Head of Content at WEBTOON U.S. “This series is perfect for anyone who wants to see more of the incredible Eternals in action, expanding their universe with new stories and a new format on WEBTOON. We’re thrilled to work with Marvel on ETERNALS: THE 500 YEAR WAR and can’t wait to collaborate on more incredible stories together.”

Get a first look at the series covers in the gallery below, and download the Marvel Unlimited app on iOS or Android to read ETERNALS: THE 500 YEAR WAR, or read on WEBTOON January 20.

WEBTOON is home to some of the most exciting new global comics fandoms, including the original digital comics behind Netflix’s hit streaming series Hellbound, Sweet Home, and the upcoming All of Us are Dead. Other global WEBTOON sensations include New York Times best-sellers Lore Olympus by Rachel Smythe, and Miriam Bonstre Tur’s WEBTOON phenomenon Hooky.

Follow Marvel Unlimited on Twitter and Facebook to stay tuned in to weekly announcements, articles, and more, all at @MarvelUnlimited. Follow us today to join the conversation with thousands of fellow fans, and let us know what you’re reading!