The Eternals have an odd place in the MCU’s history. The world-shattering event of the film seemed to have had little consequence on the day-to-day lives of the people living on the planet. There also seems to be zero continuity nods to what happens in the Eternals, despite a giant space god showing up in the sky and abducting three alien robots.
The Celestial’s body in the Indian Ocean has largely been ignored by later films in the MCU, an oversight that is going to be remedied in Captain America: Brave New World. However, there is an opportunity to use the corpse as something more than just a showpiece, something that already has precedence in the comics: it can be used as a base for the new Avengers.
T’Challa refurbished a dead Celestial’s body on the North Pole into an Avengers base
Presented as a gift to the Avengers for saving the universe from Dark Celestials, the mountain was refurbished by Wakanda, given that Black Panther was then the Chairman of the Avengers. This equipped the mountain with state-of-the-art facilities that could house, train, and enable the Avengers in their heroic exploits.
Something similar can be done with the Celestial Corpse in the Indian Ocean. This could also pit the Avengers against the returning Celestials, who are sitting in judgment of humanity as they evaluate the memories of the Celestials that were left on Earth. This could result in an X-Men vs Eternals type storyline, that could serve as the next mini-saga after Secret Wars has ended, or even be the basis of a smaller film down the line
How could the cliffhanger from Eternals tie in with the wider MCU?
As of the ending of Eternals, there are three fronts that need to be followed up on from the film. First is the plot surrounding the Eternals in space, who are rounding up their kind in a bid to revolt, if not reason, with their creators about their ways of destroying and seeding life in the Universe. Second, are the three Eternals that were taken by Arishem, who is sitting in judgment of the human race and bound to return to the Earth to either return it or end it all.
Third, is Kit Harrington‘s Dane Whitman, who has come across his uncle’s sword and has been contacted by Blade, opening up the Marvel Universe to the occult and other horror characters like the Howling Commandos. All this has been seemingly brushed under the rug, with almost no follow-ups in the three years since the film’s release.
Of course, it needs to be noted that these characters didn’t exactly have a hotline to the Avengers, but the existence of SWORD should have at the least looked into the giant red space god coming and abducting three American citizens in broad daylight.
The only way forward seems to be for Marvel Studios to address these points after the Multiverse Saga has ended, given that letting these be run the risk of audiences wondering if anything the franchise does will have consequences down the line, hence rendering their will to invest questionable for any given cast of new characters.
Captain America: Brave New World hits theatres on February 14th, 2025.
