Kumail Nanjiani Signed on for Six Marvel Movies Before ‘Eternals’: I Thought It Was ‘My Job for the Next 10 Years’ but ‘None of That Happened’

https://variety.com/2025/film/news/kumail-nanjiani-signed-six-eternals-movies-marvel-10-years-1236497295/

29 comments

  1. > “I was like, ‘Oh, this is going to be my job for the next 10 years,’” Nanjiani continued. “I signed on for six movies. I signed on for a video game. I signed on for a theme park ride. They make you sign up for all this stuff. And you’re like, ‘This is the next 10 years of my life, so I’ll be doing Marvel movies every year and, in between, I’ll do my own little things, whatever I want to do.’ And then none of that happened.”

    > “Eternals” released in November 2021 and was the worst-reviewed Marvel Cinematic Universe entry up to that point. It grossed $402 million globally, which was seen as a theatrical disappointment for a $200 million-budgeted franchise entry from a blockbuster banner like Marvel Studios. Since then, Nanjiani’s Kingo and his fellow Eternals heroes haven’t featured in another another Marvel project.

  2. This movie was over hated. I would love to see more from the eternals

  3. >“For me, what really hit me was just realizing that too much of my self-esteem is tied up in other people’s reaction to my work,” Nanjiani reflected before jokingly adding, “Also, other people have way bigger problems than this!”

    How do you not though? It’s easy to say we don’t care what people think but when major media outlets say you suck it has to hurt.

  5. For me, very forgettable. Gun to my head, couldn’t tell you one eternal’s name. Ymmv

  6. I remember the press surrounding it felt like they were really pushing the love story angle and saying marvel has never done love stories? And it really turned me off lol. I feel like I should watch it now since people have told me it’s not really just a romance film.

  7. I enjoyed it. Though it think it would’ve fared better as a Disney+ series

  8. For me eternal wasn’t bad it just didn’t feel like a “marvel big action summer blockbuster movie.”

    the marvel universe would benefit from more projects that weren’t shot the exact same way. Black widow would have been better if it were shot like a bond / spy thriller.”

    the overarching premise of eternal was 🤷🏻 to me. Like why didn’t these guys help with thanos, why didn’t the government talk more about the big space aliens in the core of the planet, etc. if these guys are so much more powerful than everybody why aren’t they on anybody’s radar ever?

    It feels sometimes like the entire marvel universe needs a connective tissue show, where somebody is cleaning up after a movie or talking about continuity. Just have a show staring Randall Park that just lightly catches people up on the 12 shows and movies they didn’t watch, with guest appearances from the movies. 🤷🏻

  9. He took all those steroids and didn’t even get the shirtless scene that every other male MCU hero gets.

  10. At least he got in ripped shape and gets to understand that whole thing. That’s a nice thing to learn about. Gilfoyle is a nerd in Spider-Man movies.

  12. As soon as I read his name, any words that follow I read in his voice

  13. I do think had Covid not happened and this movie came out in 2020 like originally planned – it would have at least made 2x or 3x the revenue…

  14. So how does it work with these contracts?

    I guess the company has the right but not obligation to put you in those things?

    Seems disadvantageous to the actor since you are potentially tied up by having to do all this work for them but they have the freedom to use you or not.

  16. Better for Marvel to pretend the Eternals never happened. Its mind-boggling that was green lighted

  18. I saw Kumail walking down the street the other day. I wasn’t sure it was him but one thing that gave it away was his arms still looked pretty jacked. I think he noticed the moment I realized it was him

  21. It wasn’t bad but definitely felt like it didn’t wanted to be a comic book movie and the pandemic certainly didn’t help.

  22. Disney’s model for Marvel movies is just unsustainable. Period. After Endgame it just got so completely out of hand all because of their own doing. They watered down the entire franchise, both in quality of individual shows and movies, and severely over-saturating the genre. I don’t know how they could possibly expect to release half a dozen shows and three movies per year and expect all of them to be billion-dollar+ hits. It is only going to get worse as people struggle to find extra money to go out and see films at the theater. Doomsday is not going to be the hit they think it will be, and they will call it a failure because of their crazy unrealistic expectations.

  23. Still not too late to give him a scene with the guy who played Gilfoyle.

  26. What?? Actor signs contract with options that don’t get exercised??? Shocking!!!!

  27. I also remember Marvel’s debacle of the Inhumans. Oh this will be an epic movie, change of plan it will be a crappy show on ABC

  28. Damn. Even the Black Bolt reappeared in Multiverse of Madness after Inhumans.

    Then again, if the Inhumans are considered the discount X-Men, the Eternals should be considered the discount Inhumans.

    BTW: I like all three.

  29. Womp womp. All those roids for nothing! At least he has a gigantic HGH jaw now, though

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