Eternals is a 'love letter' to creator of original comic book creator Jack Kirby, says Marvel chief Kevin Feige

Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige says that the upcoming film Eternals is a tribute to the creator of the comic book Jack Kirby. 

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Feige said: The whole movie is a love letter to what one man was able to do with a pencil, sitting at a little desk on the East Coast. The other day I was like, ‘How cool that I live in the timeline where William Shatner went to space in real life?' One of the bummers, you could argue there are many, of the current timeline that we live in, is that Jack Kirby passed before he got to see any of this."

The epic adventure-action film follows the titular group of immortal creatures that have secreltly inhabited the Earth for over 7000 years. They reunite in the film to battle their evil counterparts Deviants. 

Kirby created the comic book series The Eternals, which was first published in 1976 and is currently in its fifth volume, according to Screen Rant. His other works include The Fantastic Four, Thor, Black Panther, and Silver Surfer. The comic book artist passed away in 1996 at the age of 76. 

The film, directed by Oscar winner Chloe Zhao, stars Gemma Chan as Sersi, Richard Madden as Ikaris, Angelina Jolie as Thena, Salma Hayek as Ajak, Kumail Nanjiani as Kingo, Don Lee as Gilgamesh, Brian Tyree Henry as Phastos, Lauren Ridloff as Makkari, Lia McHugh as Sprite and Barry Keoghan as Druig.

Zhao has also written the screenplay alongside Patrick Burleigh, Ryan Firpo and Matthew K Firpo. Eternals is the third Marvel Cinematic Universe film to release after Black Widow and Shang- Chi.  

Eternals will release in Indian cinemas on November 5 in English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam.