MAJOR SPOILERS FOR MARVEL'S ETERNALS AND MORE MCU CONTENT BELOW
The end credits scene in Marvel's Eternals gave one particular actor some real anxiety over the future of their role in the MCU. Fair warning, below you'll find some major spoilers for both the end credit scene of Eternals and at least one other significant character in the MCU.
The end credits scene in Eternals shows Kit Harington (you know, Jon Snow from Game of Thrones) as a seemingly human version of Dane Whitman AKA Black Knight interacting with an enchanted sword. Before he can touch it, a voice heard from offscreen interrupts Harington.
According to director Chloé Zhao, that voice does indeed belong to the daywalker vampire Blade, played by Mahershala Ali. This makes it Blade and Ali's first "appearance" in the MCU, if you don't count his role as Cottonmouth in Netflix's Luke Cage series. And Ali felt quite anxious about the whole process of establishing the revitalized character from a soundbooth.
“It was really cool, getting to do that,” Ali told Empire. “It was scary. Because, you know, you're talking before you're filming it. I'm pretty particular about my choices, like most actors, and so having to make some choices – even with a line, vocally – this early on, it brought up some very real anxieties. And it made the job real. It's like, ‘Okay, this is happening now’, you know, and that's exciting.”
Despite the anxiety that comes with playing the second version of the character that helped kick off a new era of modern, darker superhero films.
“That Marvel world is obviously the biggest in film, and just to get my little introduction to that – starting with the Comic Con a couple years ago, and now the very early stages of stepping into the shoes of that character – it felt special and really cool,” Ali said. “I’m excited to get going and do more.”
Ali closed out his reflections on Blade by acknowledging that he has yet to don any of the character's iconic clothes, including the leather coat or sunglasses, but that "we're getting there. We're getting close."
The end of Eternals goes way beyond one vampire, though. If you're looking for more spoiler-filled breakdowns of the MCU's future, we've got you covered. Here's one Eternals writer explaining what a Galactus appearance could mean for the MCU, a thorough breakdown of Kit Harington's Black Knight, plus a teaser that may spell the return of Thanos.
Joseph Knoop is a writer/producer/baewalker for IGN.