SPOILER WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Eternals. If you have not yet seen the film, proceed at your own risk!
Kit Harrington knows a thing or two about swinging a sword. The actor is best known for his role as Jon Snow on the hit HBO series Game of Thrones, and not only did he spend nearly a decade performing fight scenes with a (fake) blade, but his character is also directly associated with a specific weapon: Longclaw. This in mind, is it really a surprise at all that Harrington, while filming the excellent post-credits scene featured in Chloé Zhao’s Eternals, had a bit of fun with the legendary Ebony Blade?
In said post-credits scene, Kit Harrington’s Dane Whitman is featured debating whether or not to pick up the magical sword, and he is ultimately stopped from doing so by an off-camera voice (who it turns out is Mahershala Ali’s Blade) – but when the cameras weren’t rolling, the actor definitely picked up the Ebony Blade and let it pass through the air a few times. He confirmed as much when I spoke with him during the Eternals virtual press day last month, saying,
Yeah. I mean, I did pick it up, yeah. If I see a sword, I have to like swing it about. That's kind of a rule I have. So yeah, I did.
Frankly, that’s an impulse to which I think at least a majority of us can totally relate. There are obvious exceptions, include weapons featured in a museum or exhibit hall, but if a sword is available to touch and hold, most people would at least briefly imagine themselves as a medieval knight and swing it around a bit.
That then begs the question: how does the Ebony Blade compare to the aforementioned Longclaw? Per Kit Harrington, his new Marvel weapon of choice is one that would be much less burdensome to carry into battle. Comparing the sword in Eternals with what he wielded on Game of Thrones, the actor said,
Lighter, lighter, and... yeah, just lighter and a bit smaller.
It’s a sword that he is likely going to have to get very used to, as it is set to be a massive part of his future as a star in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. As comic book fans know, Dane Whitman is destined to become the hero known as the Black Knight – a title that has been a part of his family’s legacy dating back to the era of King Arthur. The Ebony Blade is an ancestral token and a powerful weapon, but it is also a cursed object. Every time it is used to spill blood, the person who carries it is driven closer to madness. Hence his nervousness to touch it, and the mysterious warning from Blade.
As of the time of this article’s publication, the big bummer is that we don’t presently know exactly when we’ll next get to see Kit Harrington’s Dane Whitman or how Black Knight will be introduced as a new hero in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Given the appearance of the Daywalker in the Eternals post-credits scene, it feels like the safe bet is that the character’s arc will have the opportunity to continue in the developing Blade movie – but when one considers that we still don’t know when that film is coming, it’s possible that we may see more of Dane even sooner. It feels like it would be foolish at this point to rule out either a solo movie or a Disney+ series.
If you’d like to get another look at Dane Whitman with the Ebony Blade and study it for any unnoticed hints it may offer, Eternals is now playing in theaters everywhere. And to keep up to date with all of the projects from the Marvel Cinematic Universe set to come out in the next few years, head on over to our Upcoming Marvel Movies and Upcoming Marvel TV guides.
