South Koren actor Ma Dong-seok is the latest to join the cast of Marvel’s The Eternals. The actor, also known as Don Lee, had his breakout role in the zombie movie Train to Busan (2016). The Eternals will be his debut in an American feature film. The Korea Post reported that Marvel was talking with Ma back in 2017 but that scheduling conflicts forced the actor to decline the offer. Whether the discussions related to The Eternals or some other role in a different film is unknown.
Ma Dong-seok will be joining Angelina Jolie and Kumail Nanjiani in The Eternals. Jolie is rumored to be appearing as the Eternal Sersi, but characters for Nanjiani or Ma are not known at this time. Chloe Zhao is directing the film from a screenplay by Matthew and Ryan Firpo.
The Eternals is based on the Jack Kirby comic book series from 1976. The super-powered and near-immortal Eternals and their nemeses the Deviants were created by a group of cosmic beings called the Celestials.
During a press tour for Captain Marvel, Marvel President Kevin Feige in an interview with Collider said,
“Everything after Endgame, and after Spider-Man: Far From Home, will be different and be unique, as we try to make every film. But seeing returning characters is certainly something we’re gonna do and want to do. But also introducing characters that the majority of the world has never heard of, much like Guardians, much like Avengers before we made Avengers. And there are lots of them. Eternals are one group, but we like the idea of introducing an ensemble, doing an ensemble movie from the start, as opposed to building up as we did with the first Avengers. More like Guardians, not tonally, but in terms of introducing a new group of people. You were asking about ’60s, and ’70s before. Jack Kirby did an immense, amazing epic with Eternals that spans tens of thousands of years, and that’s also something we haven’t really done, which is why that among many other things post-Endgame, we find appealing.”
Unconfirmed rumors state that the movie will feature “the love story between Ikaris, a man fueled by cosmic energy, and Sersi, who relishes moving amongst humans.”
The Eternals should begin shooting in August.
