‘Eternals’ Director Chloe Zhao Explains What Went Wrong For the Film

When Marvel Studios returned to theaters on November 5, 2021, expectations for the film were sky-high.

At the time, Marvel was shrouded by an aura of invincibility and still operating on the high of Avengers: Doomsday.

Eternals, meanwhile, boasted a director, Chloe Zhao, who had received nothing but praise for films like The Rider and Nomadland. Additionally, the film featured a star-studded cast headlined by Salma Hayek and Angelina Jolie.

Source: Marvel Studios

Unfortunately, Eternals proved to be divisive among fans and eventually became the first Marvel film to earn a “rotten” rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Chloe Zhao Explains What Went Wrong

Four years after Eternals hit theaters, Zhao is reflecting back on the film and diagnosing what may have gone wrong. Here is what she had to say.

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Comparing her upcoming film Hamnet to her MCU installment, Zhao identified a glaring difference between the two films.

“Eternals prepared me for Hamnet because it’s world-building,” she told Vanity Fair.

Source: Marvel Studios

“Before that, I had only done films that existed in the real world. I also learned what to do and not to do — what’s realistic and what isn’t.” She elaborated, “Eternals had, like, an unlimited amount of money and resources. And here [in Hamnet] we have one street corner that we can afford, to [stand in for] Stratford…. Eternals didn’t have a lot of limitations, and that is actually quite dangerous. Because we only have that street corner, suddenly everything has meaning.”

The Lessons Learned

Budgets have been a frequently discussed topic as Marvel Studios has struggled in recent years.

Image: Marvel

Typically, the prevailing notion has been that Marvel needed to reduce its budgets for financial reasons.

As Zhao points out, however, there are sometimes creative benefits to a smaller budget, even if that seems counterintuitive.

In a changing box office landscape, Marvel is going to have to be quick to adapt. That flexibility will have to include smaller budgets.