The first Eternals trailer secretly sets up a team member’s villain turn by showing how Druig uses his powers. The upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe movie features a massive ensemble of Hollywood stars to play the obscure superhero team from the comics. With so many MCU fans having no pre-existing knowledge of the characters, Eternals‘ trailer was the first introduction to them for the majority of people around the world. They are shown to be working together throughout the footage and reunited in the present day to fight a new threat.

Barry Keoghan plays Druig in Eternals and is seen repeatedly during the movie’s trailer. Most of his scenes see him working with other Eternals, including forming the Uni-Mind with Sersi (Gemma Chan) and Makkari (Lauren Ridloff). There is another moment in the trailer where Druig emerges from a house in the middle of the woods. Based on other Eternals footage, this is the same location that the rest of the team travels to in the present day and meets up with Druig once again. This forest setting is seen again in the trailer and what happens there appears to be an example of Marvel Studios planting the seeds for his villainous future.

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The Eternals trailer shows a group of humans in the forest, but all of their eyes are glowing. They simultaneously raise guns at an off-screen threat, which could be the Eternals coming to meet Druig, or possibly a Deviant on the attack. Their glowing eyes and proximity to Druig seem to be a sign that he is using his telepath powers to control them. Druig has several abilities common to Eternals like super strength and flight, but he is one of the few to also have telepathy. Sersi has telepathy powers too, but she loves humans and presumably wouldn’t use her powers in such a fashion. This brings a new potential context to the moment, as Druig is quite likely controlling the humans living in the same village.

Druig’s apparent alliance with the main team in Eternals is a change from how the character has been portrayed in the comics, but asserting his power over others lines up. He is traditionally a power-hungry villain from the Eternals race whose schemes bring him into conflict with the rest of them. Druig often uses his abilities to control the minds of others to his advantage. The comics have shown him gather an army using his mental powers, force a man who resisted joining his army to kill himself, and so on. During the Neil Gaiman reboot of the Eternals, Druig managed to brainwash certain members of the Eternals during the reawakening process too. He later also telepathically communicated with a resurrected Thanos to offer the Mad Titan his aid.

Marvel Studios might be changing parts of Druig’s characterization for Eternals, but his telepath abilities seem to be intact. He is already demonstrating behavior that could make Druig a villain in the MCU sooner or later. He seems to have no problem taking control of others and very well could think that he and all Eternals are superior to humans and should be treated as such. There are already some theories that he’s secretly a villain in Eternals, so his treatment of humans could cause a divide within the group. If he doesn’t have a heel turn in the first film, then Druig could become a true villain in Eternals 2 or another project.

Key Release Dates
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  • Black Widow (2021)Release date: Jul 09, 2021
  • Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021)Release date: Sep 03, 2021
  • Eternals (2021)Release date: Nov 05, 2021
  • Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022)Release date: May 06, 2022
  • Thor: Love and Thunder (2022)Release date: Jul 08, 2022
  • Black Panther: Wakanda Forever/Black Panther 2 (2022)Release date: Nov 11, 2022
  • The Marvels/Captain Marvel 2 (2023)Release date: Feb 17, 2023
  • Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023)Release date: Jul 28, 2023
  • Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023)Release date: May 05, 2023
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About The Author


Cooper Hood
(5626 Articles Published)

Cooper Hood is a news and feature writer for Screen Rant. He joined Screen Rant in late 2016 following a year-long stint with MCU Exchange, which came after first developing an MCU blog of his own. He graduated college in 2016 with a Bachelor’s degree in Media & Public Communication, with a minor in Media Production. Cooper’s love for movies began by watching Toy Story and Lion King on repeat as a child, but it wasn’t until The Avengers that he took an invested interest in movies and the filmmaking process, leading him to discover the world of film journalism. Every year Cooper looks forward to seeing the latest blockbusters from the likes of Marvel, DC, and Star Wars, but also loves the rush to catch up on Oscar films near the end of the year. When he isn’t writing about or watching new releases, Cooper is a fantasy football obsessive and looking to expand his Blu-Ray collection – because physical media is still king! Follow Cooper on Twitter @MovieCooper.

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