Original 'Eternals' Writer Blasts MCU, "Good Version" Was Wildly Different

Writer John Ridley, best known for his work on 12 Years a Slave (2013), has some strong words about his short-lived experience at Marvel Studios — specifically, an unpopular MCU movie: Chloé Zhao’s Eternals (2021).

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Ever since its critically acclaimed Infinity Saga came to an end in 2019 with Avengers: Endgame, the MCU has struggled to find its footing as it continues to navigate a particularly tumultuous time at the box office. Phase Four, though not without its wins — Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) and Season 1 of the Disney+ Loki series being a couple of highlights — is largely remembered as the worst era of Marvel to date. And perhaps no project defined this unforgettable chapter in MCU history more than Eternals, which premiered in November 2021 to lackluster reviews from critics and fans.

Complete with a lengthy runtime of two hours and 37 minutes, a 10-person leading ensemble that felt almost impossible to keep track of, and an unusual Harry Styles post-credits scene, Eternals remains one of the most unpopular MCU projects today, among the ranks of other flops like Thor: Love and Thunder (2022) and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023).

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However, there was, at one point, a wildly different, R-rated version of Eternals in the works that could’ve saved the franchise from inevitable doom — and it would’ve skipped theaters entirely. Back in 2015, news broke that screenwriter John Ridley was working on an untitled series for Marvel Television and ABC, and now, he officially confirmed that that TV show was supposed to follow the Eternals.

During a recent appearance on the Comic Book Club podcast, the Academy Award-winner confirmed that the long-defunct series was going to be a small-screen take on Eternals, revealing that his project was going to be “so f***ing weird” and far more gory. He also didn’t hold back when criticizing the version audiences saw in theaters, calling his original scripts “the good version:”

My version, or the good version, was so f***ing weird. There was my version, a good version, which is good to me, which that doesn’t mean anything. There was the version that [Marvel] ended up doing, which I don’t think that version was particularly good, I’ll be honest.

And honest, Ridley certainly was. While his take isn’t exactly controversial by any stretch, considering the sheer amount of backlash Eternals received upon its release, it is surprising to hear a filmmaker so explicitly call out Marvel like this. Still, 2023, in particular, seems to have marked a devastating year for the superhero genre as a whole, with celebrities like Taika Waititi and even Robert Downey Jr. speaking out against Marvel as the studio continues to suffer flop after flop at the box office. “Superhero fatigue” is hardly a new phenomenon, but it seems to have reached its peak in recent years, with many accusing the MCU of putting quantity over quality.

While recalling his Marvel experience, Ridley detailed what would have been the pilot episode of his Eternals show. Based on his outline, it seems like he wanted to release a much more tonally serious, violent story along the lines of Netflix’s Daredevil, with the first scene supposedly seeing a young man putting “a drill to his ear” and pushing in:

My version started with, the first thing you see is a young man, probably about 17, 18 years old. And he’s sitting there. He’s sitting there for a moment. And then he lifts his hands. He has a drill in it. And he turns the drill on. And he puts the drill to his ear. And he starts pushing it in. And then it goes from there. That’s how it starts. And then I think you see another kid. He sleeps in the bathtub, covers himself with foil. It’s just a really weird story about these people who are, I mean, it’s just weird.

Needless to say, the Eternals audiences ended up getting in 2021 was, perhaps, a bit tamer than Ridley’s planned TV show. Even though some might’ve preferred Ridley’s more graphic approach to the source material, he did admit that it was a “really hard property [to develop].” He’d later come to the conclusion that “the best thing to happen for everybody was that it didn’t happen with me because I don’t know that it would have been entertaining [for all].”

In Chloé Zhao’s defense, Eternals is, without a doubt, a tricky property to adapt — especially in just one movie. Given that the leading ensemble consists of ten characters, along with a few supporting side characters and a pack of Deviants, cramming each of their stories into one cohesive film was a virtually impossible task from the start. There’s the off-chance that Sersi (Gemma Chan), Druig (Barry Keoghan), Phastos (Brian Tyree Henry), and the rest of the team could return in an Eternals sequel or potentially later in the Multiverse Saga. But for now, there’s been no official word on when we can expect to see the team of immortals back in action.

Do you think John Ridley’s darker take on Eternals would’ve been better than the MCU’s version? Let us know in the comments below!