Chloé Zhao Wants an Eternals Sequel: Why the Director Won’t Let Go

There is a specific kind of whiplash that comes with following Chloé Zhao‘s career. One minute, she’s capturing the raw, bleeding heart of the American West in The Rider or Nomadland. The next, she’s orchestrating CGI demigods fighting deviant monsters in arguably the most polarizing film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Most directors, after surviving a critical mauling like Eternals received, would run for the hills. Or, more accurately, run back to the prestige drama circuit and never look back. And to be fair, Zhao has done exactly that. She returned to personal cinema this fall with Hamnet, an adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s bestseller about Shakespeare’s grief. It’s earning raves. The palate has been cleansed.

And yet.

In a recent conversation with ScreenRant, Zhao dropped a quote that likely made a few executives at Disney twitch. She isn’t done. In fact, a Chloé Zhao Eternals sequel is something she is actively advocating for.

“I’m really proud of it,” she said, referring to her 2021 superhero epic. “It’s there for a reason, this kind of myth, and these films are a modern version of that to me. So, I would love to bring them back and have more discussion about the world we live in.”

It’s a bold statement. Maybe a little delusional. But it forces us to re-examine a film that Hollywood desperately wants to forget.

The “Trauma” of the First Outing

Let’s look at the wreckage before we talk about the salvage operation. Eternals wasn’t just a stumble; in the eyes of the industry, it was a face-plant.

It holds a 47% score on Rotten Tomatoes. That makes it the second-worst reviewed film in the entire MCU. Commercially, it pulled in $402 million worldwide against a massive $240 million budget. When you factor in marketing costs and theater splits, the Mouse House lost money. Real money.

The fallout wasn’t just financial. It was emotional. Kumail Nanjiani, who transformed his entire physique for the role of Kingo, openly admitted to needing therapy due to the “trauma” of the critical reception. When your cast is citing mental health struggles because the reviews were so vicious, the idea of getting the band back together seems… optimistic.

But here’s the thing.

Was It Really That Bad?

Honest opinion time. Eternals was a mess, sure. It was overstuffed, tonally confused, and struggled to marry Zhao’s naturalistic, Magic Hour aesthetic with the rigid “quip-punch-skybeam” formula of the MCU.

But was it worse than Thor: Love and Thunder? Absolutely not.

While Taika Waititi‘s fourth Thor film felt like a screeching, sugar-high parody of itself, and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania looked like it was shot inside a lava lamp, Eternals actually had ambition. It tried to discuss theology. It tried to span 7,000 years of history. It had a giant robot god rising out of the ocean that—somehow—nobody in the MCU has mentioned since.

Zhao’s vision was flawed, but it was distinct. The film has garnered a quiet, cult-like reappraisal recently, with some comparing it to Ang Lee‘s Hulk (2003). A swing and a miss, perhaps, but a swing that aimed for the fences rather than a bunt.

The Feige Factor

However, artistic reappraisal doesn’t pay the bills.

The biggest hurdle to a Chloé Zhao Eternals sequel isn’t critical opinion; it’s Kevin Feige. The Marvel Studios head is usually supportive of his directors, but he is also a pragmatist. Just last year, Feige went on record stating there are “no immediate plans” for Eternals 2.

Marvel is currently in a recalibration phase. They are slashing output, canceling side projects, and focusing on guaranteed hits (hello, Robert Downey Jr. as Doom). Greenlighting a sequel to their biggest financial disappointment would be a move that shareholders would fundamentally not understand.

Why Zhao Wants Back In

So why does she want to do it? Why does an Oscar winner, currently riding high on Hamnet buzz, want to step back into the machine that chewed her up?

It comes down to that word she used: Myth.

Zhao isn’t a hired gun. She’s a believer. She sees comic books as the contemporary equivalent of Greek tragedy. Her desire to return suggests she feels the story is unfinished—that the cliffhanger ending (with half the cast kidnapped by Arishem the Judge) wasn’t just a plot beat, but a thematic ellipsis she needs to close.

It’s admirable. It’s stubborn. It’s very, very unlikely to happen.

But in an era where comic book movies are becoming increasingly safe, plastic, and forgettable, there is something oddly charming about a director who looks at her “failure” and says, I can fix this. Let me try again.

Maybe we should let her. Or maybe we should just enjoy Hamnet and let the Celestials sleep.

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5 Things to Know About the Unlikely Sequel Prospects

• Zhao is Undeterred: Despite the backlash, Chloé Zhao views the MCU as modern mythology and is eager to explore the characters’ place in our world again.
• The Box Office Problem: With only $402M earned on a $240M budget, Eternals was a financial loss, making a sequel a tough sell for Disney executives.
• Critical Reappraisal: While it sits at a “Rotten” 47%, the film is aging better than other Phase 4 entries like Thor: Love and Thunder due to its visual ambition.
• Feige Says No (For Now): Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige confirmed last year there are “no immediate plans” to revisit the franchise.
• Cast Trauma: The reception was so harsh that star Kumail Nanjiani sought therapy, complicating the logistics of reuniting the massive ensemble.

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