After a flashback with Black Widow, Phase 4 of the MCU will truly kick-off with Eternals. Though, some rumors say parts of Black Widow will be set in modern-day. In any case, Eternals is a new franchise for Marvel to tackle. And it too will feature some flashbacks, even dating eons before those of Black Widow. We showed you some set photos of Angelina Jolie’s Thena and Gemma Chan’s Sersi. Now we have Richard Madden’s Ikaris.
Oi Ikaris 🤤 pic.twitter.com/ST8z8UyyrM
— Jangaréllis de Rapina (@mjangarelli) October 9, 2019
#Eternals set photos reveal first look at Richard Madden as Ikaris pic.twitter.com/8ag7MZVebf
— Mosho👻🎃 (@moshosite) October 9, 2019
Ikaris is rumored be the MCU’s first openly gay hero. I thought that Tessa Thompson’s Valkyrie already had that title. But I guess her sexuality won’t be explored until Thor: Love and Thunder. As far as characters, director Joe Russo spoke about his date with Steve Rogers’ support group in Avengers: Endgame.
The updated and expanded edition of The Marvel Encyclopedia describes Ikarus as,
“Born over 20,000 years ago, Ikaris is one of the Polar Eternals. He calls himself Ikaris in memory of his deceased son. Under the name ‘Ike Harris,’ Ikaris accompanied archeologist Dr. Daniel Damian and his daughter Margo to the Andes, where they witnessed the arrival of the Fourth Host of the Celestials. He later succeeded Thena as Prime Eternal. After the Eternals all lost their memories, Ikaris was killed. Reborn with his memories restored, he worked to locate the other Eternals and remind them who they were.”
While Ikaris was originally portrayed as heterosexual in the comics, even marrying a mortal woman after the death of Sersi, he could easily be the first openly gay and married superhero in the MCU.
With Madden set as the hero, he’s not the first actor from Game of Thrones to play a Marvel character. Peter Dinklage was Eitri in Avengers: Infinity War, and is said to return in Thor: Love and Thunder. Sophie Turner played Jean Grey in X-Men: Apocalypse and Dark Phoenix. And Maisie Williams will play Wolfsbane in The New Mutants, whenever that releases.
Eternals will arrive in theaters on November 6th, 2020. While we’re waiting on that, we can catch MCU’s Black Widow on May 1st, 2020. And for now, The New Mutants is set for April 3rd, 2020. But that movie has been set back so many times, there’s no telling if it’ll get pushed again. For everything else Marvel, stay tuned to Screen Geek.