Marvel’s Eternals Was Originally Meant To Release Before Nomadland

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Chloé Zhao's upcoming MCU debut Eternals was originally scheduled to be released prior to her Oscar-winning hit Nomadland. Zhao filmed Nomadland in the fall of 2018 for four months, right around the time she was hired to direct Eternals. The director worked simultaneously on both films, shooting Nomadland while working on pre-production for her MCU debut. Zhao began production on Eternals in the summer of 2019, planning to work on that film before completing Nomadland.

When the pandemic hit, though, Zhao found herself with an abundance of free time and was able to complete Nomadland while in quarantine. Post-production on Eternals was more complicated, making it difficult to complete the film from home. Zhao edited the entirety of Nomadland herself, debuting it in September 2020 at the Venice Film Festival before releasing it in the US in February 2021. Eternals is still waiting to debut, pushed back from its original November 2020 date by a year.

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Originally, though, things looked quite different. Zhao tells Variety that, prior to the pandemic, Eternals was originally set to come out before Nomadland. Zhao would have completed work on the MCU film had the pandemic not hit, saving her awards darling for after the premiere of the blockbuster. Zhao is ultimately grateful for the way things panned out, saying she never expected Nomadland to resonate the way that it does.

Kevin Feige said your original plan was that you were actually going to finish “Eternals” and it was even going to come out before you edited “Nomadland.” But because of COVID, you finished “Nomadland” so that was ready first. Is that right?

Yeah, I think so. I mean they were really back-to-back, those two movies.

That would have changed the course of history! Is it wild to think that if COVID hadn’t hit, “Nomadland” wouldn’t have come out this year?

I have gone through ups and downs in my relatively short career. And one thing I’ve learned is a bit of a cliché, but everything does happen for a reason. We never expected “Nomadland” to resonate the way it did. But everything worked out.

The fact that Zhao was working on both films simultaneously is a feat in and of itself, but seeing as Nomadland went on to sweep this year's Oscars, the director is clearly a force. Eternals would have been highly anticipated regardless, but the fact that Zhao just walked away with a Best Director trophy makes her MCU debut all the more exciting. Zhao is only the second woman in history to win that award, and the first woman of color to do so, and much of the press surrounding her work on Eternals has centered on how involved Zhao was in the production process.

Zhao is still working on Eternals' final cut, overseeing the editing process. While there's a much bigger team on this project than on Nomadland, it's clear that she'll make a distinct mark on the film. Marvel has always brought in exciting directors with distinct aesthetics to work on their big-budget films, but it sounds like Eternals could represent even bigger participation on the director's part after Zhao's work on Nomadland. Whether or not the director makes it all the way to the Oscars in 2022 with her Marvel film remains to be seen, but the Academy has proven to be more accepting of superhero films in recent years, making it entirely possible that Zhao could pop up in the awards conversation next year.