The Eternals trailer dropped today, reviving the MCU and eliciting a bit of a mixed response from fans. Some are hyped to see a Chloe Zhao directed superhero movie, others criticized the bland cinematography.
But mainly people want to know where the hell these "aliens" have been hiding for the last 15 years.
As a quick primer, the Eternals are ancient aliens who've been living in secret on Earth for thousands of years, silently observing but not really meddling in the affairs of man. They include Angelina Jolie as Thena and Richard Madden as Ikaris. Big squad, big superpowers.
Here's the official synopsis: "Following the events of Avengers: Endgame, an unexpected tragedy forces them out of the shadows to reunite against mankind's most ancient enemy, The Deviants."
Key point: Following the events of Avengers: Endgame. Essentially, after chilling out for a thousand years, now they've decided to come out of hiding and... do stuff.
Folks on the internet are rightly wondering why the Eternals just decided to sit the whole Thanos thing out? When half the Earth's population turned to dust, did the Eternals just collectively decide to ignore that? Was a galaxy-sized threat not worth coming out of hibernation for?
It's become something of a meme.
The Eternals watching Infinity War happen:pic.twitter.com/RwUZu4XdCz
— BLURAYANGEL (@blurayangel) May 24, 2021
the eternals while the avengers were fighting thanos pic.twitter.com/qdlIvtdNmY
— jo💫| typo era (@wundavision) May 24, 2021
Eternals while the Avengers were getting destroyed by Thanos #Eternals pic.twitter.com/eAotxbe3Qd
— kai • eternals era (@kai_becerel) May 24, 2021
Earth: *is attacked by alien forces, robots, and Thanos*
— Ringer-Verse (@RingerVerse) May 24, 2021
The #Eternals that have been on Earth for thousands of years: pic.twitter.com/smOTd9h1MP
the eternals watching the avengers struggle for 10+ years pic.twitter.com/EitpIPsTdV
— ً ETERNALS ERA | thena’s s/o (@MONICRAMBEAU) May 24, 2021
they never interfered #Eternals pic.twitter.com/oOBhTxAxpI
— regina phalange 🎸 (@ilysmcevans) May 24, 2021
The Eternals while Loki invaded earth, Ultron threatened to wipe out the human race and when Thanos snapped away half of the life on the planet #TheEternals pic.twitter.com/hI6DcEvvDm
— Selina (@ECNALHANID) May 24, 2021
Yeah... exactly! Where were these super powered aliens when we needed them?
Now that I think about it, everyone in the Marvel universe is culpable. Silence = consent. Where were the X-men? Where was Wolverine? Sipping pina coladas in the Bahamas? The Fantastic Four also totally sold us out on this one.
Unbelievable. Get it together super people.