Following the season finale of What If…?, Marvel Studios shift their focus to Chloé Zhao’s Eternals, which will hit theatres in early November 2021. A thousand years of history may be spanned in Eternals due to the heroes’ immortality. The MCU is only now starting to deal with its overarching storyline after Avengers: Endgame. Despite the fact that the second full trailer seems to take place after Endgame, promotional material and news coverage of the film have both hinted at the plot’s exploration of many historical eras. In addition, the first teaser released in late May depicted the group landing on Earth for the first time about 7000 years ago, paving the way for millennia of history to be brought to the big screen.

The major issue about the movie’s timeline is how many periods of history will be covered as the Eternals make their way to Earth and form a force against the Deviants. Recently published film publicity materials help address this issue by outlining what audiences may anticipate from the movie.

Exploring The Time Periods In The Eternals

More information on when the forthcoming Marvel Studios film that takes place in the MCU chronology was revealed in a press release for Eternals from Disney.  “Two time periods” are explored in the narrative. This is followed by two distinct “storylines.” One of which depicts the Eternals working as “as a formidable team and a close family unit in the past. Meanwhile, the other of which shows them broken and separated. The “prevailing threat of the Deviants” will compel the superhero team to come together for the common good, weaving between their initial days as a team and the current which finds them increasingly fractured.

“The story takes place across two time periods. One storyline is set in the past when they operated as a formidable team and a close family unit. The second storyline is in the present when the group has fractured and split apart, content to live among humans, hiding in plain sight. The prevailing threat of the Deviants, which once again threatens the existence of mankind, means the Eternals need to put their differences aside and regroup.”

It was important to Marvel’s exec producer Nate Moore to let fans explore an unexplored “corner” of the Marvel world. Fans will be given a collection of characters that are more relatable than normal since he touched on the “mythology” that creates “a challenging sci-fi movie”  but also touches on the human aspect of it:

“We want audiences to discover a corner of the Marvel universe they’ve never seen before. We want them to discover a mythology that is a challenging sci-fi movie but also has a human heart. And we want them to meet ten heroes who they hopefully can relate to.”

What Will Marvel’s Eternals Focus On?

Eternals will concentrate on the group’s early days on Earth. This, as well as the cataclysmic catastrophe that occurs soon after Avengers: Endgame, according to this report. It’s expected that the film will be longer than Avengers: Infinity War. This means Chloé Zhao will have more time to explore each period in detail as the storyline comes together. It’s still unclear how much time will be spent in each era or how the narrative will go back and forth between them. However, this information suggests that the whole narrative will revolve around these periods, perhaps with time jumps of years in between.

Marvel intends to give MCU fans something they haven’t seen before during this time period. The next phase of the MCU will carry that ambition to new heights with the franchise’s race of immortal beings. The film Eternals will make its cinematic premiere on November 5th, 2021.