The cast of Marvel's Eternals just keeps on adding star power. This weekend, at Disney's D23 Expo, it was announced that both Kit Harington and Gemma Chan would be joining the cast.
News of Harington's reported involvement in the MCU broke before the official announcement, prompting fans to speculate about every possibility, including the potential re-casting of Hugh Jackman's Wolverine in the wake of the Disney/Fox merge. Similarly, the news that Chan was being courted for the project broke earlier this month, leading fans to wonder how this new role would affect her Captain Marvel involvement.
The cast of Marvel Studios’ The Eternals takes the stage at the #D23Expo pic.twitter.com/TR1gYEEq1w
— Marvel Studios (@MarvelStudios) August 24, 2019
In Harington's case, the truth turned out to be much simpler than the fantasy that theorizing created. He will play Dane Whitman, aka Black Knight, a superhero who--this is not a joke--dresses like a medieval knight and rides around on a pegasus-like flying horse (maybe he and Valkyrie will have something to talk about?)
Things for Chan are a bit more complicated. She will not be reprising her Captain Marvel role as the Kree soldier Minn-Erva, and instead, be re-cast as the trickster Eternal Sersi. This is a rare case of an actor playing two different characters in the MCU--and likely means we won't be seeing Minn-Erva around in future Captain Marvel instalments.
Though, interestingly, Sersi's superpowers do revolve around matter manipulation and shapeshifting, which could potentially make for a very interesting in-universe loophole to explain how and why Chan could be two unrelated characters at once. Perhaps the Minn-Erva we briefly saw back in the 90s wasn't actually Minn-Erva at all.
The Eternals hits theaters on November 6, 2020.