Marvel's next cosmic epic, Eternals, will be connected to its biggest movie to date, Avengers: Endgame. The Avengers' battle with Thanos (Josh Brolin) was a monumental event that reverberated across the entire MCU, and given the sheer scale of the story, it's impossible for any group of characters to go untouched by the events of Avengers: Endgame. This includes the mysterious godlike species known as the Eternals, who have remained in the shadows during all of Earth's most important events and will only come back after the Avengers succeeded in bringing half of all life in the universe back from the dead.
After gathering the six Infinity Stones in Avengers: Infinity War, Thanos succeeded in wiping half of everyone in the universe out of existence with a single snap of his fingers. His actions were undone in Avengers: Endgame, but the reversal of the Snap wasn't immediate. Everyone was brought back five years later by Smart Hulk (Mark Ruffalo). The first post-Avengers: Endgame MCU film, Spider-Man: Far From Home, showed how normal people dealt with the fallout of the conflict between the Avengers and Thanos, and other films that take place after Avengers: Endgame are sure to explore the consequences as well.
Although its plot will encompass thousands of years, Eternals will also be the next movie to shed light on the aftermath of Avengers: Endgame after Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. Directed by Chloé Zhao and featuring a star-studded cast, Eternals follows a group of ancient, super-powered aliens who have secretly shared the Earth with humans for millennia. While the movie is not exactly a direct sequel to Avengers: Endgame, a crucial part of its story does seem to branch out from the Avengers' final stand against Thanos. Here are all the ways Avengers: Endgame may set the story of Eternals into motion.
The second full trailer for Eternals opens with Ajak (Salma Hayek) recounting the central events of Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame to Ikaris (Richard Madden) and telling him that "the sudden return of the population provided the necessary energy for the Emergence to begin". Coupled with the brief shots of impending calamity and the threat of "seven days" to gather the rest of the Eternals, it's safe to say that Smart Hulk's snap has officially brought unexpected side effects that have put the Earth in peril. What the "Emergence" really entails remains to be seen, but if the Eternals are the only ones who can stop it after millennia of not interfering with human history, then the disaster brought by Hulk's Endgame snap must be one of the most dangerous events in the history of the MCU. It's possible that it awakened the Deviants, caught the attention of the Celestials, or attracted something even more powerful.
Early into Avengers: Endgame, what's left of Earth's heroes are having a meeting regarding the state of the world. Okoye (Danai Gurira) says that earthquakes have been occurring underwater near the coast of Africa. Black Widow (Scarlet Johansson) asks how Wakanda will deal with the situation, to which Okoye responds, "It's an earthquake under the ocean. We handled it by not handling it." This could be interpreted as a throwaway line that means nothing at all for the future of the MCU, but to many, this was construed as a reference to Namor the Sub-Mariner and Atlantis.
Avengers: Endgame's writers have debunked the Namor theory, but this exchange about the earthquakes could still be a Marvel reference of some kind. It's possible that the earthquakes have more to do with the Deviants than the Atlanteans. The Deviants are a genetic offshoot of humans and the subterranean archenemies of the Eternals. In Marvel Comics, the Deviants lived in the underground city of Lemuria, which is located beneath the ocean. It's possible that the snap set off a civil war, or some other conflict between the Deviants. The second trailer for Eternals features what appears to be the beginning of a tsunami and a Deviant coming out of the ocean to fight the Superman-like Ikaris, which supports the connection between Okoye's mention of an underwater earthquake in Avengers: Endgame and whatever catastrophe the Deviants will cause in Eternals.
How were the Eternals affected by the snap, and what did they do when many of their members were erased from existence? Also, which ones disappeared and which ones survived? The answers to these questions could have a big impact on the story. Ajak appears to be the leader of the Eternals in the MCU movie, but it's possible that Ajak - who isn't their leader in the comics - inherited this position as a result of the snap.
The previous leader of the Eternals may have been Thena (Angelina Jolie), Druig (Barry Keoghan), or Ikaris thousands of years ago. Alternatively, Ajak may have been the leader prior to the snap and as the trailers suggest, she will be the one who returns to guide the team in their new mission to save the world. Either way, the Eternals have been around for thousands of years, and despite their longevity, they've never gone through anything quite as catastrophic as the snap. After everyone was resurrected, returning things to the way they were may not have been so simple.
The future of the Avengers as a team is uncertain after Avengers: Endgame. The Big Three (Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor) are all out of the picture, and Black Widow is dead. Though plenty of heroes survived, the Avengers may be disbanded forever. The Eternals have been in hiding for an incredibly long time, but that will change after Avengers: Endgame. Thanks to the Avengers, the Eternals weren't needed during the Chitauri invasion, the rise of Ultron, or the final battle with Thanos, but most of the Avengers won't be around when the next threat emerges. This could explain why - after all this time - the Eternals are forced to reveal themselves. If Earth's Mightiest Heroes are gone, other heroes will have to rise to the occasion when the planet is threatened. The Eternals can show audiences what the MCU looks like without the Avengers there to protect everyone.
In the comics, the Eternals are broken up into different branches, which occurred when the oldest Eternals separated and settled in different parts of the galaxy. The Eternals movie will obviously deal with the Earth-based group, but there's also the Titanian Eternals, of which Thanos is counted as a member. If the MCU's Thanos shares his comic counterpart's heritage, this could spell bad news for his Earth-based cousins.
The Eternals are all products of the cosmic, god-like beings known as the Celestials. After creating the Eternals, the Celestials periodically revisit their creations and pass judgment on them to determine if they're still worthy of living. The fact that one of their creations wiped out half of the universe - and presumably some of the Celestials - could understandably alter the Celestials' opinion of the Eternals, and could perhaps call into question their decision to create them in the first place. After all, it was an Eternal who caused all this destruction, death, and chaos. So, the ghost of Thanos may hang over the Eternals throughout the film. If the continued existence of the Eternals is threatened by Thanos' crimes, they may have no choice but to defeat the Deviants and prove their worth to their creators.
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