More information and art from Gillen and Ribic's Eternals

Here's a summary of the interview

>Pitch and Concept

>Eternals, they've never bred
>There’s familial relationships, but they’re static family relationships
>Thena is Zuras’ daughter, but there was never a procreative act which led to her
>There's only ever been a hundred of them
>I listed everyone I could find, which was about 50-60. Then I made the others, bringing it up to the 100
>They get rebooted often, but they've always been. They've just been in stasis
>Each reset allows them to change bodies or look
>Since a lot of characters have died and come back a lot have chosen to change their bodies. So, there's a lot of gender and body switching. That's just something Eternals do. They've been around for a very, very long time. So, it's not like how it is for us.

>"The Celestials arrive. They made 100 Eternals and a hundred Deviants and then left.”
>The Eternals are set, and the Deviants change
>Deviants are a species of one. They're all individuals. They're rapidly changing. They bred enormously, and there're millions of them.
>Part of their history is that the Earth Eternals founded Titan. So how does that work? I have a myth cycle of the past events that changed the Eternals as a society, the reason why the Titan society founded, how it linked to a previous heresy, what it meant and so on

cbr.com/eternals-kieron-gillen-interview/

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>Three Laws

>One is protect Celestials. The second is protect the machine. And the third one is correct excess deviation.

>The machine of the second law is Earth, but that's open to interpretations. Some Eternals might take that as, “let's protect the humans.” Others might take that as “Let's rule the earth.” Because the best way to protect the machine is to kill everything else on Earth and then we can rule it

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>Characters
>One thing to be aware of is the Eternals aren't really a team. They're a society. So, I'm not in a rush to introduce every Eternal in the movie

>Zuras is basically the prime Eternal and the major mover of everything

>Uranos is almost a Satan figure in Eternal history. He's someone who wanted to wipe out everyone on Earth

>Ikaris is one of our key characters early on. He's probably the most recognizable Eternal of the cast

>Sprite is another key early character, who was last seen being murdered by Zuras because he tried to break the machine
-he's been languishing in the Eternal prison, the Isolation, ever since When the book begins, they've finally decided to let Sprite out

>Another important character is Sersi who is smart, rich, and has been an Avenger. So, she knows a lot of humans

>Kingo who is interesting because he's me trying to square an Eternal being who's becoming obsessed with one culture. In the comics, he's obsessed with Japan in a certain period, which is really weird in lots of ways. He also became a movie actor! I can't think that anybody who was a serious samurai would ever become a movie actor. So, he's a playful character, but he's also hyper-competent.

>Thena who is presently living with the Deviants

>Gilgamesh, the Forgotten One, who is the person who punishes Eternals. When they get out of line, he's the one who sorts them out. He's got other Forgotten with him, and they're basically vigilantes.

>I've mentioned Druig who is like a snake.
A character like Druig, who is a very sneaky Eternal, has a distinct point of view and can argue it

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>CBR: You've been away from Marvel superhero comics for a while now. What was it about the Eternals that lured you back?

>Kieron Gillen: Mainly, I've never taken a set of Marvel characters who've been away for a while and revived them. The big vision thing. The movie is also a factor. I've never written something that was happening the same time as the movie. That puts an interesting level of eyes on it. To be able to present a book to people who are excited about the movie and want to know more about those characters is a great way to show what comics can do. I’m always interested in trying to reach new audiences. I was also hired to think big on this job, and being able to do what I do as an indie creator at Marvel was part of the appeal. Plus, these characters are an interesting bunch of glorious, fascinating weirdos!

>I wrote one of my enormous “bibles” that outlined what's good about the Eternals, what's not working with them, and how I'm going to fix it. They showed it to Esad Ribić, and I understand he was like, “I'm in!” That was an enormous thing. Esad is one of my favorite artists. To be able to do all the above and then have Esad be on board was a thrill.

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>There have been a number of books starring the Eternals over the years, but none of them have lasted super long. Looking back at them with the hindsight of the present-day why do you think they didn't last?

>I don't think you can give a “one size fits all” style answer for the simple reason that every single book happens at a different kind of time. To speak broadly, the problem I sense with the Eternals though was kind of two-fold. One is that they don't really have their own niche in the Marvel Universe. They were created as their own thing and then integrated into the Marvel U. So, why should we be interested in someone who was once mistaken for Thor when we have actual Thor over here? They're in a universe where they're often described as gods, but that job is already “taken.” [Laughs] So, part of my thinking was how could I give them their own niche?

>The second thing is there's a mixture of power fantasy and tragedy that lies at the heart of most great Marvel superhero comics. The Eternals though had existed outside the Marvel U and were solely created by Jack Kirby. So, there's not really a downside to being an Eternal. I was interested in developing that aspect.

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>There’s familial relationships, but they’re static family relationships
>Thena is Zuras’ daughter, but there was never a procreative act which led to her
What? Goddammit Gillen, what the fuck are you on? We’ve seen eternals breed, we’ve met Thena’s mom. Thena had a pair of twins with kro, Ikaris had a son who inspired the Icarus myth.

My guess is that Gillen is retconning things. Probably reveal that Eternals can't breed with other Eternals, and that Thena was adopted.

How the fuck is he going to explain Eros and Thanos? And it looks like he’s completely ignoring the uranian eternals.

Oh look a movie tie in ongoing for a neglected/boring part of Marvel canon with a high profile team that promises to reinvent the title character or team in a way that propels them to the big leagues and definitely won't last for under 12 issues, with the high profile artist stepping away because low sales can't justify their fee after 4.

How many Black Widow and Guardians of the Galaxy ongoings have we had since they started showing up in films? I swear the only one of these that's stuck is Fraction's Hawkeye.

Yeah, the Eternals were clearly never meant to be part of the MU, and Kirby isn't that good at making characters interesting without someone like Stan Lee doing the writing.