The Eternals Ending, Explained by Marvel’s Largest Cinematic Universe

Eternal is a strange installment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It is based on dark characters with one of the strangest backstories in comics, and features a race of creator gods that look like huge bulky robotic toys.

So somehow it makes sense that Eternal would have perhaps the strangest ending of any Marvel movie yet – it has a post-credits scene for a final scene and a clear path to a Eternals 2 (or maybe even bigger Avengers 5-Isch crossing event). Still, the ending of the movie could leave even the biggest MCU fans scratching their heads. Here’s how to start analyzing what happened at the end of the Eternal, based on the continuity of the film and a bit of comic book history.

[Ed. note: This post contains spoilers for Eternals.]

What happens at the end of Eternals?

Image: Marvel Studios

The final scenes of Eternals unfold as usual for an ensemble blockbuster. The great threat – the birth of Tiamut and the destruction of Earth – has been averted, and our heroes must resolve the effects of that battle on their relationships.

In self-imposed penance for turning against Arishem, Ikaris throws himself into the sun. Kingo, who sat in the final battle, adopts Sprite, who is now just a mortal human child with the memories of an Eternal and has to attend a normal human school with a normal human cell phone. And Sersi goes for a walk in the park with her normal human boyfriend, Dane Whitman.

Dane is about to drop some shocking news to Sersi about his own dark secret when things suddenly stop being so happily ever after.

Image: Marvel Studios

Arishem, the robot father of the Eternals, takes Sersi and several other characters into space with him, some who participated in the slaughter of Tiamut and some who did not, such as Kingo and Sprite. They were all very naughty, and they are so, so ingrained. Arishem is taking them away from him for a while, but says he will return to Earth at some point in the future, to judge whether they were right or wrong, and whether humanity’s potential was actually worth more than the potential of the Tiamut worlds and galaxies. . could have created.

And then the movie ends.

But what does that mean for Eternals 2?

Assessing the potential worth or ethical mettle of an entire planet of sentient beings is one of the things that Celestials are best known for in Marvel Comics. In a way, the end of Eternal It’s more like how most Marvel Comics superheroes first meet Celestials: as giant, ineffable cosmic judges.

One of EternalThe post-credits scenes further indicate that the next time we see the Eternals, they’ll be worried about whatever Arishem has planned, as Druig, Thena, and Makkari run into a couple of unusual allies who say they can help them. locate your missing friends. That could be a sequel to Eternal, or it could potentially be something else.

After all, what’s a greater threat than Thanos, the Eternal Outcast? Well, there are always the almost omnipotent Celestials who created the Eternals in the first place. And certainly the Marvel writers have found ways to unite the superhero universe with the more cosmic elements over the years.