Kumail Nanjiani says the poor response to his MCU film Eternals “shattered” him, especially considering none of the other projects he had signed on for at the time have happened.
During an appearance on the Working It Out podcast, the actor, who played Eternal-turned-Bollywood-star Kingo in the 2021 movie, explained how the negative discourse surrounding Eternals ended up being a huge letdown for him both personally and professionally.
“I talked about how I was in this big movie. It came out right after Covid, so I had a year and a half at home to just be like, ‘Oh, when this thing comes out!’ But then it came out and it got really bad reviews and it didn’t do that well,” Nanjiani explained.
The actor also revealed he signed on for six movies and other projects that simply never happened after the film’s failure to catch on like other entries in the MCU.
“I was like, ‘Oh, this is going to be my job for the next 10 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 up for all this stuff. And you’re like, ‘This is the next 10 years of my life, so I’ll be doing Marvel movies every year and, in between, I’ll do my own little things, whatever I want to do.’ And then none of that happened,” he shared.
READ MORE: Why the DCU Is Nothing Like the MCU (According to James Gunn)
Directed by Chloe Zhao (Nomadland) and released on November 5, 2021, Eternals was a critical and commercial disappointment, drawing middling reviews and making $402 million at the global box office against a $236 million budget.
During an appearance on the Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum podcast last year, Nanjiani admitted he read “every review” when the movie came out.
“The reviews were bad, and I was too aware of it. I was reading every review and checking too much. It was really, really hard because Marvel thought that movie was going to be really, really well reviewed, so they lifted the embargo early and put it in some fancy movie festivals and they sent us on a big global tour to promote the movie right as the embargo lifted,” Nanjiani shared.
“I think there was some weird soup in the atmosphere for why that movie got slammed so much, and I think not much of it has to do with the actual quality of the movie,” he continued.
Nanjiani also revealed he sought therapy after the response to the film took a toll on his mental health, and that he still talks to his therapist about the experience to this day.
“[My wife] Emily says that I do have trauma from it. We actually just got dinner with somebody else from that movie and we were like, ‘That was tough, wasn’t it?’ and he’s like, ‘Yeah, that was really tough,’ and I think we all went through something similar,” he added.
As for fans, there remain a number of frustrating loose ends from the film that were likely going to be explored in a potential sequel or future MCU crossovers that simply never came to fruition. These include Dane Whitman’s (Kit Harrington) mysterious family ancestry and destiny as Black Knight, the Celestial Arishem’s kidnapping of Eternals Sersi, Phastos, and Kingo at the end of the film, and the story of the Eternal Eros (Harry Styles), who appears in a mid-credits scene.
Last year, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige said there were no plans for an Eternals sequel at that time.
Great Actors Who Were Wasted in Their MCU Roles
These terrific actors and actresses were brought in to play Marvel roles that weren’t worthy of their talents.