Now that we're over ten years into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and DC has had their own set of comic book movies, there aren't too many leading men in Hollywood who haven't played a superhero. Richard Madden who made a name for himself as Robb Stark on Game of Thrones seemed to be one of the biggest names still on that list, but you can now cross him off. The actor is reportedly in talks to star alongside Angelina Jolie in Marvel's Phase 4 film The Eternals, as the lead character of Ikaris. With two big names on board and a lot of momentum coming off Avengers: Endgame's success, it seems the studio is expecting big things from their Eternals adaption.
Madden's name has been tossed around for superhero roles for some time now, but things have escalated thanks to his recent work on the action series Bodyguard. Fans had suggested his name for the candidacy of playing Bruce Wayne in Matt Reeve's The Batman, but it seems that is off the table now that Marvel has snatched him up. Marvel similarly did the same thing back when Jake Gyllenhaal's name was suggest for Reeves' Batman, and they ended up casting him as Mysterio in Spider-Man: Far From Home.
Similar to
Guardians of the Galaxy before it ended up in the hands of James Gunn,
The Eternals is much smaller property that even some comic book fans (Including myself) aren't well versed on. We do know Angelina Jolie is most likely playing Sersi opposite Madden's Ikaris, and the two have a romantic relationship in the comics. They also have disputes in the comics over their relationship with humans, as Sersi thinks highly of them and wants to live amongst them while Ikaris does not.
The Eternals are powerful beings in the comics created by the god like creators known as Celestials, which were introduced in
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.
Theres a lot of question marks about what Marvel has planned for Phase 4 right now other than
Eternals and the
Black Widow solo movie. Its hard to tell if
The Eternals will have anything to do with the events of
Endgame, but given how big of a deal it was there must be some sort of explanation for their absence. Its possible they could be introduced from and alternate reality or time, and idea the
Spider-Man: Far From Home trailer has already teased with Mysterio not being from our world. Its possible many other beings have come to our world through damage caused by
Endgame, which is also the way fans believe the
X-Men and
Fantastic Four will be introduced in the future.
So what do you think of Richard Madden joining the MCU? Would you rather have seen him saved for another role? Let us know below!
