Marvel’s Eternals star Salma Hayek, who plays Eternals leader Ajak, has revealed she has signed a deal to star in multiple Marvel movies.
During an interview with Smallzy’s Celebrity Talk Podcast (via /Film), the 55-year-old Eternals actress revealed that she’s already signed up for multiple Marvel movies.
“I did sign multiple movie deals!” she said. “It was kind of fun being part of this… secret society that you have to protect so fearlessly!”
This story contains major spoilers for the plot of Marvel’s Eternals – if you haven’t seen it yet, turn back now.
Although the number of movies she’s signed up for remains a mystery, there’s an even bigger question – how is Salma Hayek’s Ajak going to return to the MCU? If you’ve seen Marvel’s Eternals, you’ll know that it’s revealed rather early that Ajak is dead – her scenes that follow are flashbacks from before she was betrayed by Ikaris and ultimately killed by Kro, the leader of the Deviants.
That’s a pretty finite end for Salma Hayek’s character, so Marvel is going to have to get creative if we’re going to see the former Eternals leader once more.
It’s entirely possible that Marvel has factored in potential sequels to Hayek’s contract – meaning an Eternals 2 could be on the cards. If that’s the case, we might expect yet more Ajak flashbacks throughout her thousands of years on Earth.
However, it’s also possible that Ajak could show up in other Marvel properties. After all, with the likes of Captain Marvel and Captain America: The First Avenger taking place during different time periods, it’s not implausible to think of Hayek’s ancient Eternal showing up in the midst of a fight.
However it pans out, Marvel’s Eternals is already doing pretty well at the box office, with an opening weekend of $71 million – just shy of Marvel’s high-end expectations for the film. It’s a shame that Eternals is currently the lowest-rated MCU movie with a Rotten Tomatoes rating of just 47% – a score that’s sure to give Marvel something to think about when considering a sequel.
Still, with the introduction of Marvel’s Black Knight, Eternals has opened up a number of possibilities for the future of the MCU. And it looks as though Salma Hayek will be a part of that – in one way or another.
Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.