When Disney recently released a featurette to introduce the characters for Chloé Zhao’s Eternals, fans were surprised by a clip where a character refers to Ikaris (played by Richard Madden) as Superman.
In the Marvel Universe, Ikaris can fly and project cosmic energy in the form of beams from his eyes. Superman is also known for his ability to fly and his heat vision.
In the scene, Ikaris and Sersi (Gemma Chan) are at the home of Phasto (Brian Tyree Henry) when his child, Jack (Esai Daniel Cross) exclaims: “Dad, that’s Superman! With the cape, and you were shooting laser beams out of your eyes!”
To which Ikaris drily replied: “I don’t wear a cape.”
The scene launched many reaction videos and tweets from fans about what that comparison could mean.
According to Oscar-winning filmmaker Zhao, there wasn’t even a conversation to have that line in the script. When Kevin Feige, the chief of Marvel Studios saw it, he just said that it was cool.
Zhao also said that the characters in Eternals are like modern reinterpretations of mythical characters and that “it doesn’t mean we can’t pay tribute to the really iconic version that we’ve all grown to love and has influenced us.”
However, Zhao made it clear that the DC characters are just that in the Marvel Universe – fictional characters designed to delight audiences.
With the passing pop-culture reference, Superman from Marvel’s lifelong competitor, DC Comics, has become a fictional icon in the Marvel Universe.
Respective hardcore fans of DC and Marvel’s have spent decades in the deep-seated rivalry between each other, but Zhao hopes that audiences for her film take these references from a place of respect.
