The Marvel Cinematic Universe is stepping into a new cosmic territory with its latest film, "Eternals," and many viewers do not know what to expect from this film. All that is known is they are extremely powerful, immortal, yet they cannot intervene in human affairs, "unless Deviants are involved." While fans of the MCU have been well educated on the Avengers and the Guardians of the Galaxy over the past 13 years, many have had little to no exposure to the Eternals and are not entirely sure who or what they are. But Academy Award Winner Chloé Zhao's film will change that. That being said, it is still helpful to know a bit about each of the Eternals before watching the film, because while each of the Eternals may be immortal and hold great abilities of cosmic proportions, they do differ in how they use them.
Ikaris
Ikaris, portrayed by Richard Madden, is arguably one of the most powerful of the Eternals. He is their tactical leader and finds his main concern to be the safety of his team. His abilities consist of incredible strength, flight, and projecting extremely powerful beams of cosmic energy from his eyes. He is seen to have a romantic relationship with fellow Eternal, Sersi. He is said to be moral, kind, and charismatic, and even believes that he could lead the Avengers, since as of "Avengers: Endgame" a leadership position does appear to be open. Ikaris and Gilgamesh may share the role of strongest Eternals, but when it comes to the most powerful, there is simply no competition.
2. Ajak
While Ikaris is the tactical leader of the Eternals, Ajak, portrayed by Salma Hayek, takes on a more spiritual leadership role. She is extremely wise, taking on something of a motherly role, and has helped to guide the rest of the Eternals since they began defending Earth from the Deviants. Her healing abilities add to this motherly nature, being able to heal both humans and her fellow Eternals. This healing energy is able to heal both injuries and illnesses, making it extremely useful. Outside of her healing abilities, she also possesses the ability to communicate with Celestials, who created the Eternals and are the ones they generally answer to.
3. Sersi
Sersi, portrayed by Gemma Chan, has the greatest love for humanity out of all of the Eternals. She enjoys living among them and using her abilities to protect them and help them to further advance in the world. Her main ability is matter manipulation, meaning she can change the makeup of any material she touches, as long as that material is non-sentient. She can even be seen in one of the trailers turning a hurtling semi into flower petals with ease. She is also romantically involved with Ikaris, having been in love with her fellow Eternal for millennia. Also, despite appearances, she also has a great friendship with her fellow Eternal, Sprite.
4. Phastos
Marvel's first openly gay superhero, Phastos, portrayed by Brian Tyree Henry, is considered the smartest of the Eternals. He is found to be quite the inventor and has helped give humanity a nudge when it comes to technological advancements, all without being caught in the act. While all of the Eternals have the ability to manipulate cosmic energy, he uses this ability to go toward his inventions, allowing him to create anything he can imagine so long as he has enough raw materials to put to use. He is also a technopath, which allows him to assemble anything out of the technology around him. In the modern world, he can be seen with his husband, while the two raise their child together.
5. Thena
Thena, portrayed by Angelina Jolie, is one of the greatest warriors out of all of the Eternals. Her character is often very distant and one could even say unfriendly, but she does form an unlikely bond with fellow Eternal, Gilgamesh. Thena's abilities allow her to create any handheld weapon she can think of out of pure cosmic energy. And while she is a great warrior, Thena also suffers from PTSD, having fought many battles over the centuries, and a form of dementia, likely due to her old age as an immortal. How this illness may affect her in the long-term, we have yet to find out.
6. Kingo
Kingo, the Eternal turned Bollywood star and director portrayed by Kumail Nanjiani, was enamored with fame when he arrived on Earth. Kingo's abilities include creating projectile bolts of cosmic energy from his hands or fingertips, manipulating the size of his blasts to be as large as a cannonball or as small and precise as a bullet, and outside of cosmic abilities, he is multilingual. Of spoken languages, he can speak both English and Hindi, but he is also fluent in sign language, to accommodate for his fellow Eternal, Makkari, who is deaf and mute.
7. Gilgamesh
The strongest and kindest of the Eternals, portrayed by Don Lee, is Gilgamesh. Not only is his kindness a surprise due to his size and insane strength, but also due to his unlikely friendship with the more surly Thena, a bond which has lasted lifetimes. His abilities add onto his general brute strength, allowing him to produce an exoskeleton made of cosmic energy in battle. As an Eternal, he already has enhanced strength and durability, but this ability enhances the two even more, making it no wonder that he is the strongest Eternal.
8. Makkari
Makkari, portrayed by Lauren Ridloff, is by far the fastest of the Eternals, with her cosmic abilities allowing her to be arguably the fastest woman in the universe. Not only can she move at superhuman speeds when using her abilities, her speed also allows her to build up an extreme amount of force to enhance her attacks, make great leaps with a running start, and create sonic booms when she goes fast enough to break the sound barrier. While these sonic booms would injure anyone else who tried producing them, Makkari can go about creating them unharmed as she is the only Eternal who is deaf. She also is one of Druig's only allies among the Eternals.
9. Sprite
This Eternal portrayed by Lia McHugh, proves that looks can definitely be deceiving. While none of the Eternals look to be thousands of years old, Sprite's case is a little bit different, since she is the only Eternal that appears as a child. While Sprite may be just as old and experienced as the rest of her kind, she is forced to live her life in the body of a 12-year old girl. Her experience being treated as a child by the rest of humanity has taken an emotional toll over the centuries, and they have no idea just how strong and clever she is beneath the surface. She has the ability to manipulate cosmic energy to create extremely lifelike illusions. She is also said to have a great friendship with Sersi.
10. Druig
Druig, portrayed by Barry Koeghan, may be one of the Eternals, but it is unknown where his loyalties lie. Druig disagrees with how the Eternals have interacted with mankind over the centuries, and has become withdrawn from the rest of his species, and may have even aligned himself with the Deviants, the one enemy of the Eternals. His only true ally among the Eternals is Makkari, after all. He is sarcastic and antagonistic, but also a pacifist who has found himself wishing to use his telepathic abilities to end human conflicts, only for Ajak to bind him to their oath to refrain from interference. His abilities allow him to control the minds of humans, which could turn the tide for whatever side he ends up on.
Watch Marvel's "Eternals" only in theaters on November 5th to see how their story plays out, and how it all connects to the rest of the MCU.
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