After her Oscar win for “Nomadland,” Chloé Zhao directed the Marvel flop “Eternals,” which was a bewildering side project for a filmmaker more known for her Malick-inspired cinema than superhero cliches.
Zhao returned to more personal cinema this fall with “Hamnet,” an adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s 2020 bestseller about Agnes and William Shakespeare’s love, grief, and the death of their son, Hamnet — a tragedy that may have birthed Hamlet. It’s earned across-the-board raves. The stink from “Eternals” has been cleansed.
Yet here she is, speaking with ScreenRant, indicating that she wants to do more Marvel — specifically, going back to make another “Eternals” movie. Oy vey.
It’s there for a reason, this kind of myth, and these [MCU] films are a modern version of that to me. So, I would love to bring them back and have more discussion about the world we live in. I’m really proud of it.
Honest opinion: Chloé Zhao’s “Eternals” was not as bad as reviews made it out to be. Now, I’m not saying it was a “good” movie, but it surely was better, and more ambitious, than “Thor: Love and Thunder,” “Dr. Strange 2,” “Ant-Man 3,” or even “Black Widow.”
At least Zhao’s film had some kind of vision to it and didn’t adhere to every single convention an MCU movie must have. Yes, it failed in its ambitions, and the result is a film that Disney wants to forget, but there have been far worse.
That said, there is no way Marvel head Kevin Feige will greenlight another movie, right? Just last year, Feige stated there are “no immediate plans” for “Eternals 2.”
“Eternals” was trashed by critics. On Rotten Tomatoes it’s at 47%, which renders it the second worst reviewed MCU movie. Harsh, right? Star Kumail Nanjiani said he had “trauma” and went to therapy over the way the film was received.
“Eternals” ended up making $402M worldwide on a $240M budget. Disney and Marvel lost a lot of money on this one. There’s been a very slight reappraisal of the film, some comparing it to the way Ang Lee’s “Hulk” is now perceived in some circles — sadly, for Zhao and company, what Lee’s film has going for it is that it’s actually good.