These days, Chloé Zhao’s name is attached to critical acclaim for the book-to-screen adaptation of Hamnet, starring Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley. However, lest we forget about the dark horse Marvel movie she directed, 2021’s Eternals. Despite being given a nearly unlimited budget, Zhao says the film wasn’t a major priority for Marvel, and explains why it got made anyway.
In hindsight, Zhao’s Marvel movie is a standalone film in the MCU, a story that goes deeper into the magic of the cosmos, farther than the Infinity Saga ever did. There was great potential for its characters and storyline, originating from the comics, but Zhao told The Hollywood Reporter why Eternals wasn’t originally a high priority for Marvel Studios:
