Can I Skip the Eternals? A Friendly MCU Fan‘s Guide
TLDR: Feel free to skip Eternals if you just want to follow the core Avengers storyline. While it provides some worldbuilding, Eternals‘ slower pace and disjointed story make it non-essential viewing.
As an MCU superfan, one of the most common questions I‘ve gotten lately is: can casual viewers skip Eternals and not miss out on any important MCU lore or characters?
After analyzing reviews, box office stats, audience reactions, and how Eternals fits into the broader MCU timeline, my recommendation is:
Skip it if you‘re looking to just stick with the main Avengers plot. While Eternals isn‘t offensively bad, it‘s a slower, denser side story that adds little momentum or significance to the core narrative.
But if you love delving into MCU minutiae, it may offer some interesting cosmological context. Read on for my full analysis!
Who Are the Eternals, Anyway?
First, a quick recap on who these new characters are:
The Eternals are ancient superpowered beings created by the godlike Celestials to protect intelligent life on Earth from their destructive counterparts, the Deviants.
- They have super strength, illusion projection, energy manipulation, and other standard Marvel-hero abilities.
- Unlike most Marvel heroes, they‘ve secretly lived on earth for 7000+ years, shaping human civilization.
In the comics, they have complex, soap opera-esque relationships with the Greek pantheon of gods as well as other cosmic Marvel forces. Think melodramatic superheroes meets the Olympians!
Clearly, there‘s lots of rich lore here. So how did it translate to the big screen?
Critical & Audience Reception: A Slow, Self-Serious Film
Eternals hit theaters in November 2021 after multiple COVID delays. Reactions were decidedly mixed:
Critics
- Rotten Tomatoes: 47% Critics Score
- "Bloated, full of itself, and boring" – NPR‘s Glenn McDonald
- "I wish I could extract something meaningful from Eternals. It’s just so hollow." – Richard Lawson, Vanity Fair
Audiences
- Rotten Tomatoes: 78% Audience Score
- CinemaScore: B
- Box office: $402 million globally on $200 million budget
General sentiments were that Eternals took itself too seriously while not giving viewers enough reason to care about characters or stakes. Sure, it‘s visually epic, but the story and pace lag.
Diversity Praise and Controversy
Beyond pacing issues, Eternals also faced some heat for pushing boundaries of diversity and inclusion:
Praise
- First MCU film with deaf superhero (Makkari) and gay superhero (Phastos)
- Gender balanced cast "looks like the world today”
Controversy
- Banned in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Kuwait due to Phastos‘ sexuality
- Some critics accused it of tokenism or prioritizing wokeness over story
Depending on your perspective, Eternals either reflected progressive values or sacrificed entertainment to make political points.
Connections to Other MCU Films: Minimal
One key question for MCU devotees – how does Eternals fit into the broader timeline and mythos?
The answer: tenuously, and barely.
While technically canon, Eternals features no Avengers characters or clear setup for future MCU chapters:
| Recent MCU Film | Direct Connection? |
|---|---|
| Shang-Chi | None |
| Spiderman: No Way Home | None |
| Doctor Strange 2 | None |
| Thor 4 | Brief Makkari cameo |
Eternals gives background on the Celestials, referenced obliquely in prior MCU films. But this context isn‘t required understanding.
All in all, it‘s a fairly detached side story requiring minimal prior viewing.
The Verdict: Non-Essential Viewing With Minor Upsides
For casual viewers, Eternals is skippable. It moves slowly, lacks charisma or humor, and features no familiar faces from the core Avengers arc.
MCU newcomers would be better served starting with foundation stones like Iron Man, Avengers, and Captain America sagas.
For MCU completists, Eternals provides some mildly interesting celestial context in the same vein as Thor: Dark World or Captain Marvel – worth watching, but inessential.
I‘d only recommend it for die-hard fans looking to go deep on every detail of MCU lore and willing to sit through slower pacing and characters.
The visuals and effects are remarkable, as expected for an MCU film. And reprising my role as Dane after Thor gave me a thrill! But I wish the story captured more wit, joy, and momentum.
So in summary: it‘s fine as a detached cosmology lesson. But Eternals isn‘t integral viewing for casual Marvel fans. Consider it non-essential homework for MCU PhDs!
Eternals is currently streaming on Disney+. Let me know if you have any other MCU questions!