How Eternals Changes Dane Whitman From The Comics

Eternals made some notable changes to Dane Whitman for his transition from the comics to the MCU. Played by Kit Harington, Sersi’s modern-day love interest is the MCU’s interpretation of Black Knight, a major superhero from Marvel Comics. Dane’s introduction provides Marvel Studios with one of the most important characters still missing from the MCU’s Avengers team.

In his Phase 4 debut, Dane played only a minor role in the story and never received a chance to suit up and help the Eternals save the Earth. That being said, his comic connections did end up factoring into Eternals’ setup for the future. Without revealing too much about his secret history or what his place in the MCU will be, Eternals laid the groundwork for Dane to take up the Ebony Blade and become the Black Knight, who has a long-held reputation as the greatest swordsman in Marvel Comics. Exactly how and when his transformation will happen though, remains to be seen. Neither the Eternals nor Dane have any confirmed MCU appearances in the pipeline. Even so, it’s unlikely that the MCU would drop so many hints about Dane’s Black Knight future without having a plan in place to make it happen.

Regardless of when Dane returns, the MCU’s Black Knight will be a bit different from the sword-wielding Avenger who led the team in the 1990s. Thanks to a few alternations made to the character, his backstory, and his relationship with Sersi, Eternals ensured that. Here’s how Eternals changed Dane Whitman from the comics.

The MCU Gave Dane Whitman A New Backstory

In Eternals, it was revealed early on that Harington’s character is a British professor who works as a historian at the Natural History Museum in London. The original version, on the other hand, was an American from a very different line of work. In his first appearance in Avengers #47, Dane was introduced as a physicist at Willowton Research Center. Back then, he spent much of his time experimenting with magnetic rays. His work brought the attention of Magneto, which is the event that ultimately kicked off his superhero career and his association with the Avengers.

It’s worth noting that Marvel adjusting Dane’s career path is a background change that may not significantly alter Black Knight’s role in future team-ups. Dane’s expertise in physics was important to the Avengers’ battle with Magneto, but wasn’t really relevant to his later stories. With the Avengers relying primarily on the scientific minds of Tony Stark, Hank Pym, and Black Panther, Black Knight’s knowledge as a physicist rarely played a role in their adventures.

Dane Whitman’s Relationship With Sersi (& The Gann Josin Bond)

The idea of Dane having a romance with Sersi (Gemma Chan) wasn’t an invention of the MCU, but the relationship itself didn’t have much in common with what happened between them in the source material. In the Avengers comics, Black Knight and Sersi became romantically entangled only after becoming teammates. In fact, the two were embroiled in a love triangle with Crystal. Throughout most of their time together in the Avengers, it was actually Crystal who was the true object of his affections – not Sersi.

Dane was forced into becoming closer to Sersi when the Eternals bonded them together to stop her from being driven insane by a disease called the mahd w’yry. Due to Sersi being in love with him, the Eternals decided that only he could stop her from descending down a dark path. Known as the Gann Josin bond, their link deeply affected Dane’s mental health and influenced several of Black Knight’s 1990s storylines. As time passed, Dane developed real feelings for Sersi.

Rather than completely remove this classic Avengers story, Eternals reworked elements of it to fit Thena (Angelina Jolie) and Gilgamesh (Don Lee) so that they would receive the Gann Josin bond instead. Since both it and his love triangle with Sersi and Crystal were instrumental to his arc in the 1990s, Marvel may have to create all new problems for him to encounter if he ever joins the Avengers in the MCU.

Dane Whitman’s Blade Connection

Eternals’ post-credits scene established a surprising connection between Dane and Blade (Mahershala Ali) by having the latter warn him about touching the Ebony Blade. This implies that the vampire hunter will help guide Dane into the mystical side of the MCU by helping develop an understanding of the sword’s powers and its legacy. Blade becoming a part of Black Knight’s origin isn’t something that was inspired by the comics. After all, Dane’s comic introduction preceded Blade’s by a few years. It’s true that they were allies on Captain Britain’s MI-13 team during the 2000s, but that was the extent of their relationship. Marvel Comics’ Dane didn’t need help from anyone outside his family to become the Black Knight.

Eternals’ Dane Whitman Is Comic Relief

In the few scenes that Dane had in the movie, his character provided comedy relief through his interactions with Sprite (Lia McHugh), reaction to Ikaris (Richard Madden), and jokes about wanting Sersi to turn him into a giraffe. His sense of humor was much less prevalent in the classic comics, where Dane was depicted as a more serious character akin to Captain America or Cyclops. This change wasn’t entirely unexpected, considering that Marvel made similar personality changes to heroes like Star-Lord and Shang-Chi.

How Black Knight Obtained The Ebony Blade

Interestingly, Marvel’s smallest changes to the classic Avenger involve how Dane found the Ebony Blade. Based on what was said in the movie, it’s assumed that Dane got his hands on the sword after taking Sersi’s advice about trying to repair his strained relationship with his uncle. Dane also became aware of his “complicated” family history, which he never had an opportunity to elaborate on. All of this differs only slightly from the comics, where Dane learned the truth after a fight between Iron Man and his uncle, Nathan Garrett, a version of the Black Knight who went from a respected biologist to a notorious criminal. In his final moments, Garrett bequeathed to Dane the Black Knight mantle and the Ebony Blade. Dane accepted them in the interest of restoring Garret’s ruined reputation.

Since little is known about who the MCU’s Nathan Garrett really was, it’s hard to say if Dane will share his comic counterpart’s interest in saving his uncle’s image. Seemingly in contrast to the MCU character, Marvel Comics’ Dane Whitman didn’t know when he obtained the sword that the Black Knight legacy went back any further in his bloodline than Garrett. It wasn’t until much later that he discovered the Ebony Blade’s blood curse and the fact that it had ties to his family history dating back to the Arthurian era. Even so, the hints included in Eternals suggest that Dane’s heritage is close to (if not the same) as the character from the comics. So apart from the Blade connection and a few other changes, Eternals’ Dane Whitman is on track to receive a mostly comic-accurate Black Knight story in the MCU.

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