Despite a gutting lack of fresh Marvel movies since summer 2019’s Spider-Man: Far From Home, this year is shaping up to be a major year for the MCU between Black Widow, Shang-Chi and six original Disney+ series starring some major leads. And 2021 is set to conclude with Chloé Zhao’s Eternals, and we finally got our first trailer for the movie on Monday. The long wait proved to pay off in hype since it just broke a major record for Disney and Marvel.
The Eternals trailer dropped on Monday following a short tease from Marvel three weeks prior during a promotional video encouraging fans to return to theaters this summer and fall. In the first 24 hours of the trailer making its way online, it reportedly racked up a stunning 77 million views globally. Those numbers have sent the Eternals debut soaring to become the biggest online trailer drop for a Disney Marvel movie since the 14-month COVID-19 pandemic, per Deadline.
For Walt Disney Studios, the trailer beat out the 24-hour viewer count for February’s Cruella trailer, which had garnered 71 million views in the same time period. Eternals also apparently bested the WandaVision first look that aired during the Emmys in September, though it could not compare to Disney+’s Falcon and the Winter Soldier’s 125 million, though those numbers included its Super Bowl broadcast.
Eternals also did better than the latest Black Widow trailer that came out in April to 70 million views, and certainly did better than the introduction to Marvel’s other 2021 origin movie, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. This early record is a great sign for the success of Eternals, especially since the comic book characters are relatively unknown by mainstream audiences. Check out the first Eternals trailer below:
Even if many of us might need to read an explainer or two about who the Eternals are in anticipation of the fall release, the title has garnered interest over the past couple of years. Not to mention Chloé Zhao, the director behind the most recent Best Picture winner Nomadland, helmed the movie. Also, Eternals stars some major names, including Angelina Jolie as Thanos’ cousin Thena, Salma Hayek as Ajak, Gemma Chan as Sersi and Game of Thrones’ Stark brothers Richard Madden and Kit Harrington reuniting for Marvel roles of Ikaris and Dane Whitman, respectively.
Even though the trailer certainly leaves a lot of questions about the Eternals, it also gives us an idea of what the movie actually is and drums up some excitement about a new dawn for the MCU. Unlike other Marvel movies, this one will apparently take place across thousands of years, including ancient times. The movie stars an impressively diverse cast who have apparently lived on Earth and shaped its history throughout time. On November 5, we’ll learn exactly why they’ve decided to move out from the shadows.
