Marvel’s Eternals Movie Cast Guide: Every Character Explained
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Marvel’s Eternals cast includes Oscar nominees, TV stars, and a South Korean icon. Here’s which weird and wonderful cosmic characters they’re playing.
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Warning: Contains SPOILERS for Marvel’s Eternals.
The ensemble cast for Marvel’s Eternals movie includes Oscar nominees, television stars, and a South Korean movie icon. In addition to a stellar main cast, Marvel’s Eternals also reserved some bombshell character reveals, as per usual, for its highly anticipated post-credits scene. Here’s who each actor plays in the latest MCU film and where you know them from before landing their Marvel roles.
Based on Jack Kirby’s Marvel Comics series, Eternals follows an immortal human species sent to Earth to defend humans against the Deviants. They are the product of the Celestials’ manipulation of the evolution process, setting up an inevitable confrontation between good and evil. Eternals’ screenplay was written by Matthew K. Firpo and Ryan Firpo, with Chloé Zhao (The Rider, Nomadland) directing. Prior to the film’s release, the only direct connection to the Eternals in the MCU has been via Thanos, with his father A’Lars name-dropped in Avengers: Infinity War. However, Eros’ appearance (Thanos’ brother) in Eternals’ post-credits scene acts as a direct link to the ever-burgeoning wider MCU.
Eternals’ star-studded cast is a shining embodiment of the MCU’s continued popularity. Marvel’s Eternals features a heavyweight and multicultural cast that reflects the global scope of the Eternal’s 7,000 year history, and their subsequently thrilling story. Here are all the new characters in Marvel’s Eternals, and the actors who portray them.
Angelina Jolie as Thena
As the daughter of actor Jon Voight, Angelina Jolie became a Hollywood star during the mid to late ’90s. She won a Golden Globe for her performance in the 1998 HBO film Gia, and the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her portrayal of the sociopathic Lisa Rowe in Girl, Interrupted (1999). During the 2000s, Jolie starred as the title character in the Lara Croft franchise, as well as in Mr. and Mrs. Smith. In recent years, she’s portrayed Maleficent in Walt Disney’s franchise of the same name and was recently in Taylor Sheridan’s Those Who Wish Me Dead.
For Eternals, Jolie wstars as Thena, a well-educated and powerful warrior. In the comics, Thena was born in ancient Greece, and the city of Athens was named after her. Thena’s father, Zuras, changed her birth name, Azura, to complement their relationship with Zeus and daughter Athena. Canonically, during the Vietnam War, Thena’s sexual relationship with the supervillain Kro, the leader of the Deviants – led to the birth of twins, although this is one storyline Marvel’s Eternals chose not to include in favor of making Kro a bystander for much of the film. Thena can also manipulate cosmic energy that allows her to create a golden spear out of that energy, a skill that she uses to deadly effect throughout Eternals.
Richard Madden as Ikaris
In pop culture, Richard Madden is best known for portraying Game of Thrones’ Robb Stark, the character responsible for inadvertently setting up the infamous Red Wedding that killed him, his wife, and mother Catelyn Stark. In 2018, Madden won a Golden Globe for his performance in the BBC series Bodyguard, and portrayed Elton John’s former manager, John Reid, in Rocketman.
For Eternals, Richard Madden plays Ikaris, a character with cosmic energy manipulation powers. In the comics, Ikaris is the father of Icarus, who – in Greek Mythology – dies after flying too close to the sun. Ikaris takes great pride in protecting the human race through modern means and even becomes a professional wrestler known as Iceberg. He’s also in a romantic relationship with Sersi and their relationship is seen evolving over time, with his love for Sersi eventually prompting Ikaris’ apparent suicide in Eternals.
Kumail Nanjiani as Kingo
Comedian Kumail Nanjiani’s star has been on the rise for a while. He broke out as Dinesh Chugtai in the HBO series Silicon Valley and got an Oscar nomination for co-writing the romantic comedy The Big Sick, which is based on his relationship with Emily V. Gordon (also the film’s co-writer) and which he also starred in the leading role. Nanjiani also starred alongside Dave Bautista in the comedy Stuber, with Issa Rae in The Lovebirds, and he was nominated for an Emmy Award for a guest spot in Jordan Peele’s The Twilight Zone reboot.
Nanjiani’s Kingo provides ample comic relief in Eternals with Kirby’s character evolving hilariously into both a movie action star and filmmaker. Kingo is one of the Eternals most involved with humanity and is a Bollywood star in the present day before reuniting with the other Eternals. While he eventually cannot bring himself to aid in Tiamut’s destruction, Kingo still reunites with Sersi and the other surviving Eternals at the end of the MCU phase 4 film before being captured by a vengeful Arishem the Judge.
Salma Hayek as Ajak
During the ’90s, Salma Hayek rose to fame by appearing in Robert Rodriguez films like Desperado and From Dusk till Dawn. For the 2002 biopic Frida, she received a Best Actress Oscar nomination for her portrayal of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. In recent years, Hayek co-starred in the Grown Ups franchise and played Sonia Kincaid in The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard. She’ll next be seen in Gucci alongside Lady Gaga and Adam Driver.
For Eternals, Hayek portrays Ajak, the team leader who feels a change in energy after Hulk brought back half of Earth’s population in Avengers: Endgame. She tells Ikaris they only have seven days before the Emergence, suggesting they have little time to prepare before the arrival of the Deviants, from whom they’ve sworn to protect humanity. In the original comic series, Ajak – a male character – is worshipped in Central America, as the Aztecs believe him to be Quetzalcoatl, while the Incans identify him as Tecumotzin, Lord of Flight. In Neil Gaiman’s Eternals miniseries, Ajak is able to communicate with the Celestials, which is another trait ported over into Marvel’s Eternals storyline.
Brian Tyree Henry as Phastos
Brian Tyree Henry portrays Paper Boi in FX’s Atlanta and Detective Mike Norris in the Child’s Play reboot and voiced Jefferson Davis in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Henry has also starred in If Beale Street Could Talk, Widows, and Joker. He most recently starred in The Outside Story, in which he played the leading role.
In Eternals, Henry portrays Phastos, a master engineer who can also easily create weaponry with the use of his powers. In the comics, Phastos has a mysterious background and is known to be a genius. For Eternals, Phastos develops his own and the team’s technology as well as aiding the industrial growth of humanity across 7,000 years. Because of the character’s ability to manipulate cosmic energy, he can also create illusions, and he wields a pair of customized gauntlets, which he uses to battle Ikaris in Eternals’ climactic battle scene.
Gemma Chan as Sersi
Gemma Chan has starred in everything from the hit romantic comedy Crazy Rich Asians to Captain Marvel, where she portrayed Kree warrior Minn-Erva, and, most recently, she voiced Namaari in Disney’s Raya and the Last Dragon. In Eternals, Chan portrays Sersi, one of the Eternals with a deep love of humanity and Earth, describing it as “beautiful,” immediately after the Eternals had landed.
In the comics, the character is able to manipulate molecules and atoms, which is on display in Eternals as she turns a bus into flowers and irrigates soil for water to flow. Canonically Sersi also has superhuman strength, telepathy, telekinesis, and can manifest cosmic energy, powers which will likely blossom as the MCU phase 4 develops. Sersi also boasts interesting romantic history with both Ikaris and the Black Knight, with the trio involved in a love triangle for much of Eternals’ runtime.
Dong-seok Ma (Don Lee) as Gilgamesh
A South Korean superstar, Dong-seok Ma, a.k.a. Don Lee, has won major awards for feature films like The Neighbor, Train to Busan, and The Outlaws. In 2019, he headlined the action thriller The Gangster, The Cop, The Devil. For Eternals, Dong-seok Ma plays Gilgamesh, the group’s strongest character, a man who is often mistaken for mythological figures in the comics. Gilgamesh is known as “The Forgotten One,” and once joined The Avengers alongside Sersi before he left due to an injury and boasts a power is comparable to Thanos. Gilgamesh’s relationship with Thena in Eternals is an original subplot for his character, with his treatment of an ailing Thena a particularly touching moment in the film.
Lia McHugh as Sprite
With only a handful of credits to her name, McHugh is Eternals’ youngest main cast member. She portrays Jessica Nolan in the TV series American Woman and appeared in Hulu’s Into the Dark. She was also in Songbird, The Lodge, and Along Came the Devil.
For Eternals, she embodies the trickster Sprite, a gender-swapped version of the character from the comics. The character is often punished for questionable and destructive behavior and often appears ignorant to the consequences for humans. In Gaiman’s Eternals series, Sprite’s neck is snapped by Zuras, Thena’s father. The Eternals’ Sprite turns out to be equally destructive, betraying her fellow Eternals through a mixture of envy and spite as they race to stop the Emergence from happening.
Lauren Ridloff as Makkari
Ridloff is a deaf actress who is best known for portraying Connie in The Walking Dead. She’s also a former Miss Deaf America and recently starred in the Broadway production Children of a Lesser God, for which she earned a Tony Award nomination. She has also appeared in Sound of Metal, Legacies, and New Amsterdam.
Ridloff’s Eternals character was originally a man in the comic book series and, like the character of Sprite, was gender-swapped for the film. Like Thena, Makkari is well-educated and was also born in the ancient Greek city of Olympia. Makkari is known for being part of major historical events, such as the Trojan War and the Battle of the Alamo and her penchant for engaging with history is from and center once again in Eternals. The character also has the ability to create cyclones by running in circles, and can also sprint at the speed of light. As with Gilgamesh, Makkari’s romance with Barry Keoghan’s Druig is another plot element specifically manufactured for the Eternals movie.
Barry Keoghan as Druig
Barry Keoghan most notably starred in Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk and has also been in The Killing of a Sacred Deer and the HBO series Chernobyl. In addition to Eternals, the actor also stars in The Green Knight and The Batman. In Eternals, Keoghan plays Druig, the cousin of Ikaris. In the comics, Druig has superhuman speed and strength. He can manipulate cosmic energy like Sersi, blast energy, fly, and teleport. While canonically he is one of the Eternals with a penchant for inflicting pain on others, the MCU’s Druig is in fact pained by the genocide he witnesses, with his self-enforced exile a result of his painful bond with humanity.
Kit Harington as Dane Whitman/Black Knight
Kit Harington is best known for playing Jon Snow in Game of Thrones. He’s also voiced Eret in How to Train Your Dragon 2 and How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, and starred in 2014’s Pompeii. Harington most recently starred as Austin in the stage play True West. In Eternals, Harington portrays Dane Whitman, a physicist who eventually takes up the mantle of Black Knight in one of Eternals’ two post-credits scenes. In the comics, Black Knight is at one point an Avenger. He wields the Ebony Blade, a mystical sword, and has great hand-to-hand combat skills, and excels in strategy. Outside of his big post-credits reveal, Whitman’s main purpose in Eternals is jarringly wondering aloud why the Eternals didn’t stop Thanos’ snap during Avengers: Infinity War or any other historic catastrophe from happening.
Bill Skarsgård as Kro
Bill Skarsgård is best known for his terrifying portrayal of Pennywise the clown in the rebooted film double of Stephen King’s IT, which perfectly exemplifies his skills as a vocal and physical actor. Skarsgård plays the Deviant warlord Kro in Eternals, albeit in a vastly altered state to his comic book character’s version. In Marvel Comics canon, Kro is a sentient, cunning being who leads covert operations against the Eternals from his underwater base of Atlantis. In Eternals, however, Kro begins his journey as a bestial creature, who becomes more potent and aware by absorbing the powers of the Eternals he kills, although his death is still ultimately rather unceremonious.
Harry Styles as Eros/Starfox
One of the most shocking post-credits scenes in recent memory arrives in tandem with singer Harry Styles’ seemingly seismic introduction into the MCU. Eternals ends with Druig, Makkari, and Thena sailing into space to find more of their Eternal brethren, before a portal opens in the middle of their ship. Eros, announced by his bard Pip, strolls through this wormhole before announcing he can help the Eternals save Sersi and company from Arishem, while also dropping the casual bombshell that he is Thanos’ surviving brother. Despite being primarily known for his contributions as a key member of the boy-band One Direction, Styles has more recently held a minor part in the Christopher Nolan epic Dunkirk that will stand him in good stead for his MCU future.
Patton Oswalt as Pip
Alongside Harry Styles’ Eros MCU cameo, comedy legend Patton Oswalt joins the MCU to voice Starfox’s boisterous drunkard of an assistant, Pip. Like Eros, Pip appears through a portal aboard The Domo, with the troll announcing his master’s accolades prior to Styles’ Starfox strolling into view. Oswalt’s roll-call of films even prior to Marvel’s Eternals is vast, with the comedian starring in no less than 36 movies to date.
Mahershala Ali As Blade
Uncredited and a complete mystery to most viewers, Mahershala Ali’s secret role in Eternals’ after-credits scene was only revealed after release by Chloe Zhao. That voice only cameo sets up a surprising link between Marvel’s infamous Day Walker and Harington’s Dane Whitman in the future. Whether that means Whitman’s Black Knight will appear in Blade remains to be seen. Ali is known for Marvel’s Luke Cage, True Detective, House of Cards, and Green Book.
Next: Eternals Final Trailer Breakdown: 31 Reveals
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Q.V. Hough is a senior writer at Screen Rant. He’s also the founding editor at Vague Visages, and has contributed to RogerEbert.com and Fandor.
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