Salma Hayek reveals new details about her Eternals character. Now that Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings has been playing in theaters for nearly two weeks, eyeballs have slowly been turning to the next film on Marvel's release slate. Similar to Shang-Chi, the next cinematic entry in the MCU will continue to introduce new and diverse heroes who are expected to make their marks on Phase 4 and beyond.
Written and directed by Nomadland's Chloé Zhao, Eternals follows a group of immortal aliens who have been living on Earth for multiple millennia, but have been instructed by their creators and overlords, the Celestials, to never interfere in human affairs unless their evil counterparts, the Deviants, are involved. However, the sudden return of half the Earth's population in Avengers: Endgame provides the necessary energy for them to return. Eternals truly seems to be an ensemble piece, but a few of its most notable heroes are Ajak (Salma Hayek), Thena (Angelina Jolie), Ikaris (Richard Madden), and Sersi (Gemma Chan).
Now, in an interview with Total Film (via The Direct), Salma Hayek is revealing some new details about her Eternals character. While fans already knew a few things about Ajak, Hayek let an interesting new detail slip. While discussing how director Chloé Zhao wanted to "tackle the concept of leadership from the perspective of motherhood," Hayek revealed that her character "can't have kids." Read more of what Hayek had to say below:
Chloé decided to tackle the concept of leadership from the perspective of motherhood… I'm not a mother. I'm an alien. I can't have kids. However, my character used to be a man in the comics, now it's a woman. So instead of just changing the gender, I proposed to [Zhao] to really bring something that is very specific to womanhood.
Fans already knew that Ajak was gender-swapped for the film and in past interviews, Hayek has spoken about how her character is the group's de facto maternal figure. However, the part about Ajak not being able to have kids is new. It's unclear if she is saying that her character is infertile or that the Eternals are unable to procreate as an entire race. It's also unclear if this concept will even be addressed in the upcoming film.
Whether or not the Eternals can reproduce isn't dealt with directly in the comics either, but Thanos is well-known to be a member of the mysterious race, and it is said that he was born with the Deviant Syndrome, rather than created. Thanos also has a child named Thane, which would seem to suggest Eternals can procreate. They don't really have a need to given they are immortal and can be resurrected by a Celestial machine. Hopefully, the Eternals' origins, lore, and other details like these are explored when the film releases in theaters on November 5.
