‘Eternals’ Actors Says Harsh Reviews Sent Him to Therapy: “I Signed on for Six Marvel Movies”

Honest opinion: Chloe 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, Zhao and the whole ensemble want to forget, but there have been far worse.

Kumail Nanjiani has revealed that his deal to portray Kingo in “Eternals” included a commitment for up to six films—a clause he believes applied to many of his fellow cast members as well.

The actor, who famously transformed his physique for the role and has managed to keep it ever since, pointed out that Marvel has yet to show any real interest in bringing the Eternals characters back to the big screen, even though the film’s events have been referenced in the MCU.

Speaking on Mike Birbiglia’s podcast, Nanjiani also admitted that the process took such a toll on him that he eventually sought therapy.

“It came out right after COVID, so I had a year and a half at home to be just like, ‘When this thing comes out. It came out, received really bad reviews, and didn’t do well. It shattered me too much. That was when I was like, ‘Oh, I need to go to therapy to figure this out.’

I was like, ‘This is going to be my job for the next ten years.’ I signed on for six movies. I signed on for a video game. I signed on for a theme park ride. They make you sign on for all this stuff. You’re like, ‘Okay, so I’ll be doing Marvel movies every year, and in between, I’ll do my own little things. Whatever I want to do.’

None of that happened. For me, what really hit me was realising that too much of my self-esteem is wrapped up in other people’s reactions to my work. People have way bigger problems than this.”

Reflecting on his time in the MCU, Nanjiani admitted, “If you go by the reviews, Eternals might have had a few too many characters. But I loved making it, and I’m really proud of the film.”

The opposite happened. “Eternals” was trashed by critics. On Rotten Tomatoes it’s at 47% which renders it as the second worst reviewed MCU movie. Harsh, right? Nanjiani said he had “trauma” over the way the film was received.

Coming off Zhao’s Oscar winner, “Nomadland”, expectations were sky high in the hopes that it could go down as one of the better MCU movies. It wasn’t. Still, the visuals were fairly well-realized, but that ballooning 157-minute runtime was not needed.

“Eternals” ended up making $402 million worldwide on a $240 million 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.