10 IMMORTAL HEROES 7,000 YEARS ONE OSCAR WINNING DIRECTOR MARVEL'S BOLDEST MOVIE YET

THE NEXT MOVIE IN MARVEL’S PHASE 4, ETERNALS IS SET TO BE MARVEL’S BIGGEST S W I N G Y E T . COMBINING MILLENNIA-SPANNING SWEEP WITH INDIE SENSIBILITIES AND ONE OF THE MOST EXCITING ENSEMBLES YET ASSEMBLED FOR A SUPERHERO FILM, CHLOÉ ZHAO’S SUPER-FAMILY EPIC COULD CHANGE THE COMIC-BOOK MOVIE LANDSCAPE FOREVER.

- MATT MAYTUM

Since Jon Favreau helmed Iron Man in 2008, Marvel Studios has been fearless in hiring directors not typically associated with blockbusters. Kenneth Branagh, Shane Black and Taika Waititi are just a few of the names you wouldn’t have previously considered for big-budget capes-and-spandex adventures. The latest pleasant surprise in the fold is Chloé Zhao, the Chinese filmmaker known thus far for Songs My Brothers Taught Me, The Rider and Nomadland, the latter earning her Best Director and Best Picture Oscars (among countless other accolades). It makes her the first Best Director Oscar-winner behind an MCU movie, even though her pitch was made just before she hit the road with Frances McDormand.

“I actually pitched Eternals to Kevin [Feige, Marvel Studios President] and Nate [Moore, Vice President of Production and Development] the day before I got into my van and drove to do Nomadland,” Zhao tells Total Film with a laugh. “I remember, as I was leaving, Victoria [Alonso, Executive Vice President of Production] said, ‘Make sure you come back. It’s going to be a long journey.’ I drove away the next morning to the desert.”