Eternals star Patton Oswalt has suggested that a sequel to last year’s superhero film may be moving forward at Marvel Studios. While the potential follow-up wasn’t included in the production company’s Phase 5 lineup announcement at last month’s San Diego Comic-Con, the Emmy Award-winning actor hinted the news during an interview with The Today Show.
Oswalt made the announcement while he was on NBC’s morning news show to promote his new comedy movie, I Love My Dad, which James Morosini wrote, directed and co-starred in.
When host Al Roker brought up the fact that besides I Love My Dad, Oswalt also apeared in the MCU, the Grammy Award-winning comedian said: “They have announced there is going to be an Eternals sequel and Chloe Zhao is going to direct it. So, hopefully, there will be more adventures of Starfox and Pip.”
In the first film, the actor voiced the character of Pip the Troll, the assistant of Thanos’ brother, Starfox, who was voiced by Harry Styles. Starfox and Pip appear in Eternals‘ mid-credits scene, which seemingly sets up further adventures for the characters.
At the end of the first movie, a card states that Eternals will return. However, it hasn’t yet been confirmed by Marvel Studios if the superpowered team will receive its own full follow-up, or take part in a film with an ensemble of MCU superheros.
Marvel producer Nate Moore has even stated that the studio isn’t currently prioritizing Eternals 2, as the original movie is the MCU’s worst reviewed feature. It also only made a little over $402 million at the worldwide box office, off a reported $200 million budget.
“It’s not something that is a must-have.
Obviously, we have ideas of where we could go, but there isn’t a hard and fast rule where we have to have three of these things and this is the first,” Moore said. “If you just watch Eternals, you can enjoy Eternals, you can understand Eternals and you’re good to go.”
Besides Oswalt and Styles, the film features an ensemble cast that includes Gemma Chan, Richard Madden, Kumail Nanjiani, Barry Keoghan, Salma Hayek and Angelina Jolie. The cast brought the comic book superheroes, who are based on Jack Kirby’s Marvel comics of the same, to the screen for the first time.
The ensemble group of Eternals were left fractured at the end of the movie’s plot, which allows Marvel Studios to move forward with a sequel in the future, if executives change their mind and do decide to do so.