Actor: Marvel Studios Anticipated This 1 MCU Flop to Be a Huge Hit

Marvel Studios Anticipated This 1 MCU Flop to Be a Huge Hit. A recent cast member of the MCU claimed that the unfavorable reviews following the project’s premiere caused “trauma” during his time working on it.

Marvel Studios Expected This 1 MCU Flop to Be a Huge Hit

Kumail Nanjiani, who played Kingo in the movie Eternals, was recently on the podcast Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum.

Prior to discussing his unpleasant experiences with the movie’s premiere, Nanjiani assured Rosenbaum that he is “very proud of” Eternals and “proud of everyone’s work in it:”

“I love that movie. I’m very proud of that movie. I’m proud of everyone’s work in it and I’m proud of my work in it. And I’ve seen that movie many times because it’s like my kind of movie.”

The actor then reflected on the experience of marketing Eternals, saying that “Marvel thought [Eternals] was going to be like really, really well-reviewed,” which resulted in the actors embarking on “a big global tour” and an early review embargo.

“It was really, really hard because Marvel thought that movie was going to be like really, really well-reviewed and so they lifted the embargo really early and they also put it in some fancy movie festivals and they sent us on a big global tour promoting the movie right as the embargo was lifted.”

The goal of Marvel Studios’ release of Eternals, which was helmed by Academy Award winner Chloé Zhao and starred a number of well-known actors, including Richard Madden and Gemma Chan, was to create a superhero team that stood out from the Avengers.

Given the respect and talent around the founders, expectations were high. There was even talk that it would receive an Academy Award nomination.

In the end, Eternals was a disappointment that received a 47% review score on Rotten Tomatoes from reviewers. It is not among the worst comic book movies ever created.

They set out to “travel the world,” anticipating “a wave of raves,” but as Nanjiani puts it, everyone quickly realized “the reviews were really bad:”

“And so we had to sort of like travel the world while they thought we’d be going on a wave of raves and it wasn’t true. It just sort of was — the reviews were really bad.”

When Nanjiani was on tour, Rosenbaum asked him if he was aware of it. He replied that he was. After the COVID-19 epidemic, the actor stated he “was reading every review” and that he anticipated this to be a “coming out party”:

“I was reading every review. I was checking too much because this thing had become too much in my head. This was also right after the pandemic you know? So we’re coming out after this crazy thing and I’m like ‘OK this is going to be the coming out party. I worked too hard for this.'”

The actor acknowledged that “there was some weird soup in the atmosphere” for the negative reviews, but he did not believe they had anything to do with the actual quality of the film. Brian Tyree Henry is the first homosexual superhero in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Nanjiani did not particularly reference Henry in his remarks.

“I think that there was some weird soup in the atmosphere for why that movie got slammed so much. And I think not very much of it has to do with the actual quality of the movie.”

Due to its depiction of LGBTQIA+ people and the inclusion of a homosexual kiss, Eternals received a lot of negative reviews on IMDB.

Nanjiani came to the conclusion that he “can’t approach [his] work this way anymore” after the tour and the entire experience. Something needs to change.

Furthermore, he started counseling “very intentionally,” and he continues to discuss his experience with Eternals with his therapist:

“And so, very intentionally, I did start counseling — I still talk to my therapist about that.”

In addition, Nanjiani stated that his wife Emily V. Gordon has verified that he does indeed suffer from “trauma” related to the Eternals experience:

“Emily says that — that I do have trauma from it.”

He tells his other cast members about this encounter. During a recent meal, Nanjiani talked about how he “went through something kinda similar:” with a co-star, who was presumably Barry Keoghan.

“Actually, Emily and I just got dinner with someone else from that movie and we were like ‘Man, that was tough wasn’t it?’ He’s like, ‘Yeah that was really tough.’ I think we went through something kinda similar and then this guy that I’m talking about is like truly one of the best actors of our generation and has been nominated for an Oscar since then.”

Nanjiani gained perspective for the future as a result of this awful encounter with Eternals. He started to Rosenbaum that he “realized that [he] can’t be so results-based in [his] work anymore because [he] can’t really control it:”

“So I realized that I can’t be so results-based in my work anymore because I can’t really control it. I can control my experience. I can control how I am to the people around me. I can control where I learn from it. I can control how I work. I can’t control what people are going to think of it.”

Is Kingo Going to Be in the MCU?

This candid interview on Kumail Nanjiani’s bad experiences marketing Eternals does bode well for Kingo’s live-action comeback to the MCU.

While the character was mentioned in passing in Loki Season 2, Nanjiani was not reprising his part.

In 2022, the actor said he is “completely in the dark” regarding Kingo’s potential comeback to the MCU, expressing doubt about it.

He did, however, express enthusiasm for the franchise’s future, highlighting the intricacy and entertainment value of the recently released Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.

Nanjiani stated he is excited to maybe return, although he acknowledged he has no idea when it would happen.

In the past, Nanjiani denied Patton Oswalt’s claim that Eternals 2 had been revealed, speculating that Oswalt could have been duped by a phony website.

Since their team-up film, none of the Eternals have appeared on screen, and a sequel does not appear to be in the works. Regretfully, Eternals’ unimpressive critical and financial reception may prevent them from appearing in the MCU in the future.

Disney+ is now streaming Eternals.