Marvel’s Eternals is coming to theaters on November 5, 2021, and will feature the most diverse cast in a Marvel film to date. This includes Lauren Ridloff who will be playing the MCU’s first deaf superhero, the Eternal Makkari. Lauren Ridloff is a deaf actor and recently revealed how co-star Angelina Jolie stepped up to help her when she was struggling on set.
In a recent interview with The New York Times, Ridloff opened about how it was hard for her to follow some cues during filming. Luckily Angeline Jolie (Thena) came up with a unique solution. Ridloff told The New York Times:
“In some scenes, I had to face a wall. As a deaf person, how do you cue me? At one point, I was sharing my frustration with Angelina Jolie. And she immediately made a suggestion: why don’t we use a laser pen that special effects can easily erase? It was an ‘Aha, wow’ moment. Whenever I’m looking at a wall, the interpreters would use a laser pen to make a circle on the wall — ‘rolling, rolling, rolling’ — and once it went away that meant, ‘Action!’”
Eternals is certainly changing the game for Marvel’s Phase 4 by being the first Marvel movie to introduce a gay superhero with Brian Tyree Henry’s Phastos. Each of the Eternals has a different cosmic energy power, and Lauren Ridloff’s Makkari has the power of super speed.
The diverse cast also includes Gemma Chan as Sersi, Richard Madden as Ikaris, Kumail Nanjiani as Kingo, Lia McHugh as Sprite, Barry Keoghan as Druig, Don Lee as Gilgamesh, Kit Harington as Dane Whitman AKA the Black Knight, and Salma Hayek as Ajak.
The Eternals are immortal beings created by the Celestials and have been hiding on Earth since prehistoric times. Their introduction in the MCU will give fans a glimpse into parts of the Marvel Universe that have yet to be explored.
The revolutionary Marvel film helmed by Oscar-winning director Chloe Zhao (Nomadland) is officially described as:
Marvel Studios’ Eternals features an exciting new team of Super Heroes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, ancient aliens who have been living on Earth in secret for thousands of years. Following the events of Avengers: Endgame, an unexpected tragedy forces them out of the shadows to reunite against mankind’s most ancient enemy, the Deviants.
Even more deaf superheroes are on the way as the Hawkeye series drops exclusively on Disney+ on November 24, 2021. Clint Barton AKA Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) will be deaf in the series as he is in Marvel Comics and the series will also introduce Maya Lopez AKA Echo (Alaqua Cox) as another deaf character. Echo will also be the first Native American superhero in the MCU and could be getting her own show.
Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige certainly seems to be dedicated to making the MCU more inclusive as it expands to the Marvel Cinematic Multiverse.
Credit: Marvel Studios
Let us know in the comments if you cannot wait for Marvel Studios’ Eternals.
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Credit: Marvel Studios
