One Marvel Hero Who Was Set Up For A Major Role In The MCU Isn't Coming Back
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The Multiverse Saga has been an up and down ride for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. There've been moments of resounding success, such as "Deadpool & Wolverine" or "Spider-Man: No Way Home." But there've also been unexpected low points, where films that were presumed hits failed to deliver. And no movie embodies that more than 2021's "Eternals," which /Film declared an ambitious but uneven cosmic epic upon its debut. So, it shouldn't come as a huge surprise that at least one character from that film likely won't be returning to the MCU.
Kit Harington played Dane Whitman in director Chloé Zhao's superhero epic. But "Eternals" was supposed to just be an introduction to a larger story for Harington's Black Knight, the character Dane becomes in the pages of Marvel Comics. In a recent interview with MovieWeb, the former "Game of Thrones" star made it clear that while he would love to see that transformation happen, there are currently no plans for it ... at least, not that he's aware of. Here's what he had to say about it:
"I'd love to. I don't think there's any plan to. I hate to break it to you. [...] I think he's a wicked character. There's a part of him, that whole Ebony Blade stuff, where the more he kills, the worse he gets, the more addicted. I think he's such a great parable of addiction. I think he's someone who starts good and goes bad. But we'll see, I don't know if there's any plan."
Again, this is unfortunately not surprising. "Eternals," aside from earning mixed reviews, made barely more than $400 million in theaters (a very low sum for Marvel at the time) and sort of foreshadowed the MCU's subsequent fall from grace at the box office. It was an unfortunate misfire.
Marvel seems content to ignore Eternals (for the most part)
Kit Harington was seemingly getting into the MCU at the right time as part of what was expected to be a huge, ongoing franchise when he signed up to appear in "Eternals." Plus, he was coming off a huge run on "Game of Thrones." Likewise, Marvel originally had much larger plans for the Eternals in the MCU, but those plans quickly changed after the movie failed to connect in the way the studio had hoped.
The "Eternals" post-credits scenes set up big things for the future of the MCU, with Dane finally coming into contact with the Ebony Blade, teeing up his transition to becoming the Black Knight. There was also a different credits scene that introduced Harry Styles as Starfox, yet another thread that has yet to be pulled on in the nearly five years since the movie first hit theaters. Marvel Studios, for the most part, seems totally content to ignore the events of "Eternals," chalking it up as a swing and a miss.
2025's "Captain America: Brave New World" addressed some of the MCU's biggest loose ends, including the massive, half-emerged Celestial in the middle of the ocean that was a result of the events of "Eternals." That was, quite literally, far too big to ignore. Harington's Dane Whitman, however? Sadly, it seems that's something that can just be swept under the rug as yet another aspect of the Multiverse Saga that didn't go according to plan.