Eternals Producer Reveals How The Movie’s Deviants Differ From The Comics

Eternals producer, Nate Moore, has revealed how the film’s villainous Deviants were changed from their comic book depiction. The film is directed by Nomadland filmmaker, Chloé Zhao and will introduce an entirely new team of superheroes to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Eternals debuted in Hollywood this week and will debut in theaters for general audiences next month.

Eternals tells the story of the titular group of immortal beings sent to protect humanity from the Deviants. The Deviants are the longtime foes of the Eternals and are referred to as “The Changing People” throughout their publication history. In some ways, they are the opposite side of the coin when compared to the powerful and perfect Eternals, as they are generally depicted as hideously deformed and imperfect beings.

Now, with Eternals set to debut in theaters next month following a lengthy production, new information about the creative liberties the film has taken with the Deviants has come to light. In a set visit for the film conducted in 2020 (via Comicbook.com), Eternals producer Nate Moore explained that the Deviants were slightly changed in the film to have more animalistic, predatory traits – with the one exception of their leader, Kro. Moore said:

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.

So while the Deviants are always rooted as uniquely monstrous beings, the film adaptation of Eternals will take that to an entirely new level by giving almost all of them animalistic traits. This is not the first time the MCU has made changes from established comic book lore. Even as recently as Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings, the MCU made major changes to the long-established canon in order to make sure the stories being told fit into the overarching MCU narrative. In the quest to tell a grandiose and cosmic story with Eternals, the change in question largely seems to have revolved around creating villains who are even more otherworldly than their comic counterparts.

Of course, with a property like Eternals, there was a lot of room for Marvel to play around with the formula and try new things. Unlike brands like Spider-Man or Captain America, many general audience members had likely never heard of this particular corner of Marvel lore before the film. As such, Zhao and the Eternals creative team have room to try new things and create memorable Phase 4 villains who don’t completely mirror the established arcs from the comics. Eternals will debut worldwide on November 5.

Source: Comicbook.com