Richard Madden States that His Character Wouldn’t Have Fought Thanos

One wouldn’t think that an Eternal, who is sworn to fight against the Deviants, their natural enemies, would ever think to state that they would shirk what is seen as their duty, but apparently, Richard Madden believes that his character, Ikaris, might not have been a part of the Endgame fight even if he’d had the chance. It’s curious that the Eternals are allowed to blend in with humanity and be a part of their society while seeking to protect them, but aren’t allowed to fight on their behalf. In light of how powerful they are, it does make a little bit of sense, but it’s still hard to think that they were around the entire time and couldn’t do anything to protect the world from Thanos and his machinations. But it’s even worse to hear that one of them might not have lifted a finger even if he’d had the chance to do so. The thing about this matter is that Ikaris is apparently kind of detached from the world in a way that suggests that he would need a pretty good reason to get involved. 

In other words, the threat might need to target him directly or target someone that he cared deeply about before he was seen to act in any decisive manner. That kind of makes one feel that Ikaris doesn’t really care that much about humanity one way or another. This means he’ll do his duty when it comes to the Deviants, but it also means that he might not care too much about collateral damage. Some might want to argue that a lot of heroes don’t tend to take this into account, but calling Ikaris and the other Eternals heroes at this time still feels like a slight stretch due to the demands they have to follow. If anything, it feels as though the Eternals are bound to protect humanity from the Deviants, but apart from that, they aren’t exactly heroic, even if they’ve been around long enough to have guided humanity in a number of ways. 

That no-interference rule is something that obviously has a few loopholes in it, but Madden’s belief that Ikaris wouldn’t have lifted a finger against Thanos argues that he would have simply deduced that Thanos wasn’t his worst enemy at that time and would have stayed out of it, while a few of the other Eternals might have decided to get involved had they been given the chance. With a group this big, it is reasonable to think that we’re going to get a lot of information within the movie and it will be less than possible to get to know every single character that well, which is why it’s confusing to think that there might not be a sequel planned for The Eternals. Maybe they’re going to be seeded into the MCU, or maybe there’s something that will require their presence, later on, it’s hard to say right now. All that a person can say is that The Eternals is going to raise a lot of questions at this point and it’s bound to happen that a lot of people will wonder what in the world will come next for this group in the MCU. 

The moral conundrums that are being raised by certain individuals and groups in the MCU are making things a little harder to figure out at times, but they’re also bringing a bit of realism to the MCU that a lot of people are bound to be appreciative of since the stories are no longer about costumed heroes that save the day at the expense of a few city blocks and get off without any type of admonishment. As Avengers: Age of Ultron and everything after it showed us, the heroes are actually being held more accountable than the villains at this point as the landscape of the MCU has changed in such a way that those who are trying to save the world are those that are being regulated the heaviest, which allows the villains more of a free hand to do as they please since like it or not, regulating the heroes is bound to make the villains a great deal bolder.

How this will play out in The Eternals is bound to be a series of interesting developments as the group will bring in a lot of new faces, ideas, and will no doubt influence the MCU in a number of ways that will help to explore new stories and directions that will help to continue fleshing out Phase 4. Whether or not they’re bound to be a one-off movie or will be reconsidered for additional appearances is tough to say right now since it would appear that they’re only meant for this one outing. But given how often things change around the MCU it wouldn’t be surprising to see them return at some point.