Second life
Oscar-winning filmmaker Chloé Zhao reflects on the divisive impact and evolving reputation of her ambitious Marvel epic, ETERNALS
EDITED BY CHRIS HEWITT
!SPOILER WARNING
INDISPENSABLE HOME ENTERTAINMENT
Gemma Chan as Prime Eternal Sersi, on the run as crew-members get the shot.
Director Chloé Zhao and Angelina Jolie (playing elite warrior Thena) chat on set.
A MARVEL MOVIE from Oscar-winning indie auteur Chloé Zhao was never going to be your typical MCU fare. But Eternals — arriving mere months after her awards-sweeping Nomadland — proved especially polarising, with its existentially troubled cosmic heroes, multimillennia-spanning timeline, and a surprise cameo from a certain pop megastar. Marvel die-hards and critics alike were befuddled. But as Eternals hit Disney+, its reputation began shifting, audiences discovering more on every rewatch. Zhao sat down with Empire to talk the film’s polarising reception, emotional complexities, and evolving destiny.
2021 was a huge year for you — it began with Nomadland’s Oscar wins, and ended with Eternals. How are you reflecting on it all now?
Wow. If you put it like that, how lucky am I? I’m very, very grateful for how many people around the world took their time to see my work. And I absolutely loved the team behind both films. So beyond that, I am lucky to love the people I work with.
Were you able to enjoy the Oscar success at the time, and let those wins sink in?
I went to bed at 2:30 that morning, and I went back to the Marvel office, I think, at 8 [laughs]. So the answer is... no. But I’m not really the type that celebrates too much anyway, so it suits me just fine to go back to work.
What did it mean for you to be able to make a huge genre film like Eternals —a massively ambitious, comic-book fantasy blockbuster
with your fingerprints all over it, that made $400 million during a pandemic?