Just when we thought the return of Natalie Portman as the Mighty Thor and Christian Bale's MCU debut as the menacing Gorr The God Butcher was more than enough for Thor: Love and Thunder, apparently, there's more. One of Marvel Comics' strongest beings, Eternity, made its first live-action MCU appearance, described as the sum of all life that exists in the universe.
While Eternity's MCU future remains to be seen, Thor: Love and Thunder triumphantly established how strong the character is. Sadly, there wasn't any actor behind the character, and is entirely made up of VFX effects. Now, it's hard not to wonder why Marvel Studios didn't cast anyone as Eternity, particularly an A-list actor like Morgan Freeman, who's undoubtedly fitting for the role.
In a recent interview with Josh Wilding of ComicBookBovie.com, Thor: Love and Thunder's VFX Supervisor Jake Morrison sheds some light on Eternity's inclusion and why Marvel Studios decided not to cast Morgan Freeman or another actor with the same Hollywood stature for the role.
Talking about the challenges they faced bringing Eternity to life, Morrison admitted that they went through a lot of options and almost considered Morgan Freeman to play the character:
“Well… it certainly we went through a lot of different options to get to that. But I think we all kind of felt that sometimes, you know less is more really. And so, you either go fully realized… and I was asking that the filmmakers like, ‘Are we gonna cast somebody for this? Is this ultimately gonna, be you know, like Morgan Freeman’s playing God again? … Are we going to do that, because if we are, I’d like to know sooner, so I can go and get scans and things like that.’"
The Marvel VFX supervisor also noted that casting a major actor as Eternity could have stolen the spotlight from Hemsworth, Portman, and Bale in a very "heavy, emotional scene."
"And they just really felt that… I thought this was super smart… This Taika [Waititi] and the gang at Marvel, that that moment really… belongs to the three actors. And if you suddenly stuck another big CG creature in there who’s gonna you know throw out a bunch of dialogue… it could distract from a heavy, emotional scene, frankly."
Lastly, Morrison gave credits to Marvel Studios for letting them have the entire decision for Eternity's first on-screen debut:
"And they gave us like a lot of freedom in VFX to make what I think was a pretty brave choice to go as simple… The great thing about working at Marvel is they’ve got the archives, so if you want to see… I literally received like a PDF of like, ‘Oh and here’s every single frame in order of Marvel canon where Eternity ever spoke.’ When you get stuff like that. you’re like, like Sunday lunch is reading through all this stuff like on the iPad. I was kind of really pleased where it ended up, just because it’s not distracting… It has a Southern Oracle feel to it [from The Neverending Story], I think without being… It’s imposing, it’s there, it’s a big figure, it looms over the scene, but you never lose focus on Atreyu in that scene.”
In Marvel Comics, Eternity is ultimately one of the strongest beings. Some of Eternity's impressive feats include defeating Dormammu, destroying and recreating earth, and shaping the universe multiple times.
However, one obvious reason why Marvel Studios did not cast anyone in the role is to pave the way for the actor who will officially play Eternity in the long run, once the studio decided to give the character a more prominent inclusion in the future. When they do, Morgan Freeman would absolutely be an interesting choice.
Thor: Love and Thunder is now streaming on Disney+.
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