Trailer Watch: Nomadland Director Chloé Zhao Takes On Superheroes In Marvel’s Eternals

Early this month, Marvel Studios dropped a sizzle reel of its upcoming titles, including a sneak peek at Eternals, about an immortal alien race who secretly live on Earth.

Even though only 12 seconds of footage was shown, it was enough to get everyone all psyched up. (The two seconds dedicated to Angelina Jolie brandishing a sword is more excited than the entire time she’s in Those Who Wish Dead.)

And now, there's more to feast our eyes on in its first trailer — and it looks like nothing Marvel has ever produced before. For starters, there's a Bollywood dance number. In the trailer, we're told the Eternals have been on Earth for a long time. "Throughout the years, we have never interfered, until now," says the narrator. So what compelled them to step in? And is this before or after the Blip? (The trailer ends with a joke about the Avengers' future without Iron Man and Steve Rogers.)

Based on Jack Kirby’s 1976 comic series, Eternals also stars Salma Hayek, Gemma Chan, Richard Madden, Ma Dong-Seok and Kumail Nanjiani, and is the first in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to feature LGBTQ and deaf superheroes.

Directed by Nomadland’s Oscar-winning Chloé Zhao — who shot that existential road movie before working on the Marvel juggernaut — Eternals is part of the MCU’s Phase Four, which kicked off in January with WandaVision on Disney+.

The first Phase Four movie will be the Scarlett Johansson-led Black Widow — interestingly, Zhao was once considered for — which is slated to debut in cinemas on July 8 as well as on Disney+’s Premier Access with a S$38.98 rental fee.

Marvel’s Eternals opens in cinemas Nov 4. Nomadland is now streaming on Disney+.