Written By Kieran Bugg
Gemma Chan will have the lead role in the MCU’s Eternals as Sersi.
Chloé Zhao won the Oscars for Best Picture and Best Director for her critically-acclaimed film Nomadland.
Afterward, Variety spoke with Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige to discuss her upcoming MCU movie: Eternals.
Feige explained why the source material’s diversity is what drew Zhao and producer Nate Moore to bring the relatively unknown team of heroes to life.
“The notion of switching up the genders, sexualities and ethnicities of the characters from the comics, was baked in initially — that was part of what Nate Moore was really advocating for in moving Eternals to the top of the list for us to start working on,”
Feige revealed.
“What exactly the makeup was between when Nate put together his internal discussion document, which is how we always start on all of our projects, and what she came in and did, I don’t recall exactly.”
Eternals will feature one of the most impressive casts of any Marvel project date.
Iconic actors such as Angelina Jolie, Kit Harrington, Richard Madden and Salma Hayek star. Furthermore, Feige stressed why he believes Gemma Chan will be the film’s lead.
MCU’s Eternals: Gemma Chan Has Lead Role
“When it came to casting, that also did affect it. There were some characters that we change from male to female. There were some characters that we knew how we were altering them from the books,”
Feige added.
“But then also it came down to casting. So for Sersi, for instance — and if there was a lead in this ensemble, it is Sersi, it is Gemma Chan. We looked at and read all sorts of women for that part. And ended up really believing that Gemma was best for it. And thankfully, she’s proven that to be the case in the final movie.”
Gemma Chan previously had a role in 2019’s Captain Marvel as Kree warrior and Starforce soldier Minn-Erva.
Unfortunately, her character only had a minor antagonistic role in the film.
She was not given enough to display Gemma Chan’s talent and full potential.
Thankfully, Marvel was able to bring her back for Eternals and give her a much bigger role for this movie and possibly even the future of the MCU.
