Warning: This post contains slight spoilers for Eternals.

Eternals producer Nate Moore defends the decision to keep Kingo out of the final battle. Marvel’s Eternals finally arrived in theaters last weekend after being pushed back an entire year by the coronavirus pandemic. With a $71 million domestic opening and a $161 million worldwide total, it got off to a solid start at the box office, though many have noted that it also holds some of the worst reviews in the entire MCU. Nevertheless, Eternals is solidly a part of the massive franchise, having introduced 10 new heroes with the ability to affect the universe in a major way.

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Marvel was careful not to reveal too much about Eternals‘ story in the lead-up to its release, but now that it has arrived, it’s clear there’s a much bigger conflict at hand than what initially appeared. Throughout the movie, the Eternals are split on whether to defy their creators the Celestials, or to follow through with their mission and allow for the destruction of Earth. The split between opinions creates the two sides who participate in the final battle, but one Eternal is notably missing from the fight: Kumail Nanjiani’s Kingo, who disagrees with going against the Celestials but also isn’t willing to fight those who want to.

Fans noted Kingo was the only living Eternal who skipped the final fight, and that led to some debate over whether that was truly fair. Speaking on ComicBook.com‘s Phase Zero podcast, producer Nate Moore defended the decision to leave Kingo out of the battle. Moore said that it keeps with who Kingo is as a person, particularly with his values and beliefs:

“That would be against, what I believe, is Kingo. So, if there’s a spectrum, ‘I’m not all the way to Ikaris, but I don’t agree with you guys.’ And if you watch the movie, at no point does Kingo ever agree with their plan. He is actually a pretty consistent character in what he believes and values. And again, in a movie, that for us was very much about faith and purpose. We didn’t want to take, I don’t want to say the easy way out, but we didn’t want to take the expected route of redeeming this guy because I don’t think he would have showed up at that last fight is the truth.”

Perhaps it’s only because Kingo was the one Eternal to sit out the last fight, or because fans merely wanted to see more of him, but his absence has drawn a lot of attention. Moore makes a fair point about who Kingo is as a person; Eternals depicts him as the vainest member of the group, leveraging his power to gain wealth and success as a Bollywood actor. It does make sense that he might choose to slip away rather than confront a difficult issue. At the same time, it would’ve been interesting to see how Kingo where might’ve fit into the Eternals vs. Eternals fight.

Kingo played a part in the cliffhanger ending for Eternals, so fans can likely expect to see more of him in the future. The last minutes of the movie seemed to indicate his fellow Eternals don’t hold any ill-will over his refusal to get involved, but that could change in the future. The team looks rather different by the time the movie comes to an end, and that might make for some shifting dynamics in future installments. Maybe next time, Kingo will actually get to participate in the climactic battle.

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Source: ComicBook.com

Key Release Dates
  • Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)Release date: Dec 17, 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
  • Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023)Release date: May 05, 2023
  • Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023)Release date: Jul 28, 2023
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Rachel Labonte
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Rachel LaBonte is a news, feature, and movie review writer for Screen Rant with a deep passion for film and television. A graduate of Emerson College, she majored in Media Arts Production while specializing in screenwriting. She’s been a writer ever since high school when she realized she was rather good at it and joined as many entertainment news clubs as she could while in school. Most notably, she wrote for Emerson’s website Emertainment Monthly, and one of her film reviews won an Evvy (Emerson’s student awards) for Best Review. Her deep love of movies led to her working at a movie theater for five years, which she loved despite the angry customers. An avid reader who constantly buys books before reading the ones she already owns, Rachel is a huge fan of superheroes (especially of the Marvel variety) and wizards and will likely never be able to catch up on all the movies/TV shows she longs to watch.

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