Eternals Producer Revealed How Movie’s Deviants Are Different From The Comics

Nate Moore, the producer of Eternals, has revealed how the film’s villainous Deviants differed from their comic book counterparts. Chloé Zhao, the director of Nomadland, will direct the film; which will introduce a completely new team of superheroes to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Eternals debuted in Hollywood this week and will debut in theatres for general audiences next month.

The storey of the titular group of eternal creatures entrusted to protect humanity against the Deviants is told in Eternals. The Deviants have been the Eternals’ longtime rivals and have been referred to as “The Changing People” throughout their history of publishing.

They are, in some ways, the polar opposite of the mighty and perfect Eternals, as they are frequently depicted as horribly malformed and flawed individuals. Now, as Eternals prepares to hit theatres next month after a protracted production, additional details concerning the film’s creative liberties with the Deviants have surfaced.

With the exception of their leader, Kro, the Deviants were slightly transformed in the film to have more animalistic; predatory tendencies, according to Eternals producer Nate Moore on a set visit for the film in 2020 (via Comicbook.com). Moore said:

“.. these are the Deviants that the Eternals were sent again to eradicate..”

“As you know, the Deviants in the comics are called the Changing People, no two Deviants look the same. So in our film, no two Deviants will look the same. But you do see as sort of these parasitic predators when they do kill off a predator in the film, they do take the shape of that predator. So they’re sort of bat-like Deviants. There’s a wolf-like Deviant. There’s a Deviant that look like all sorts of creatures from myth and legend in history. And these are the Deviants that the Eternals were sent again to eradicate, to help humanity advance. Because the Deviants are the Changing People, they come in all different shapes and sizes.“

While the Deviants have always been rooted as horrible entities; the film version of Eternals will take that to a whole new level by giving practically all of them animalistic characteristics. This isn’t the first time the MCU has deviated from traditional comic book mythology.

The MCU has made big revisions to the long-established canon as recently as Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings to ensure that the stories being told fit within the broader MCU narrative. The modification in question appears to have centred around developing adversaries; who are even more otherworldly than their comic equivalents in the desire to portray a grandiose and cosmic storey with Eternals.

With a property like Eternals, Marvel has plenty of leeways to experiment with the formula and try new ideas. Unlike Spider-Man or Captain America; many members of the general public were likely unaware of this particular aspect of Marvel lore prior to seeing the film. As a result, Zhao and the Eternals creative team have more leeway to attempt new things; and develop unique Phase 4 adversaries that don’t always follow the comics’ established storylines. On November 5, Eternals will be released worldwide.