Chloé Zhao, acclaimed for her Oscar-winning ‘Nomadland’, never imagined the fallout that would follow her ambitious foray into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. ‘Eternals’ was supposed to be her grand leap into blockbuster filmmaking, but the project’s misfire left the director reflecting on the perils of creative freedom in the midst of “unlimited money and resources.” Despite its global box office earnings of $402 million, the film remains a divisive subject among Marvel fans, with a 47% score on Rotten Tomatoes highlighting its poor reception. But Zhao, ever candid, now calls that very freedom “quite dangerous.”
In a recent conversation with Vanity Fair, Zhao shared, “Eternals didn’t have a lot of limitations, and that is actually quite dangerous,” she said. She was comparing ‘Eternals’, with its immense budget and the enormous scope of the MCU’s universe, to her latest project, ‘Hamnet’, a much smaller film set in 16th-century England. For ‘Hamnet’, Zhao’s budget was constrained to a single street corner, a far cry from the boundless resources that came with the Marvel tentpole. That contrast, she suggests, is where true creativity flourishes. “Suddenly, everything has meaning,” Zhao continued. The limited space in ‘Hamnet’ forced her to focus, to make every element count, something ‘Eternals’ expansive canvas struggled to do.
Chloé Zhao Blames Marvel’s Misfire To Be Dangerous
Zhao had the best of both worlds, drawing on her indie sensibilities while attempting to mesh them with Marvel’s high-octane formula. However, fans of her previous work, like ‘The Rider’, found the fusion jarring. ‘Eternals’ broke from the established visual language of Marvel, which alienated both fans of the studio’s tried-and-true style and admirers of Zhao’s subtle, meditative storytelling. The result was a film that seemed too far removed from both worlds, leaving many unsatisfied. “We truly stepped out of the box that I think the world put us in, and met in the middle because of our shared interests,” Zhao explained. But the gamble led to a polarizing reception that turned many critics and fans away.
The official teaser trailer for Chloé Zhao’s ‘HAMNET’ starring Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal.
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In theaters this Thanksgiving.
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Adding to the film’s challenges was its delayed release. Originally slated for 2020, ‘Eternals’ found itself opening a year later, during the pandemic’s turbulent aftermath. With ‘Avengers: Endgame’ still fresh in the collective memory, Zhao’s existential exploration of gods and humanity seemed ill-timed, contributing to its divisive reception. As Zhao puts it, the global crisis left audiences primed for introspection, setting the stage for ‘Eternals’ to provoke discomfort on a broader scale.
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Yet, despite the turbulence, Zhao sees value in the experience. “I actually see the reaction as a testament to how much we had merged with each other,” she said. Whether she would take on another Marvel film is uncertain, but the director’s takeaways are clear. In a world where the sky’s the limit, it’s easy to lose sight of the essential constraints that make storytelling compelling.
