Kumail Nanjiani still has “trauma” from Eternals reviews

Last Updated on March 5, 2024

When Eternals was released in the fall of 2021, it marked an all-time low Rotten Tomatoes score for the MCU. Having just come off of a 79% for Black Widow and a  92% for Shang-Chi to lead both Phase Four and the Multiverse Saga, Eternals earned the first-ever “rotten” score for the Marvel Cinematic Universe: a 47%. It was a shock to the franchise’s system but it may have had a far greater impact on star Kumail Nanjiani, who continues to bring up Eternals at therapy.

Speaking on Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum (via The Hollywood Reporter), Kumail Nanjiani admitted that he allowed himself to feed into the negative reception of Eternals, saying, “The reviews were bad, and I was too aware of it…I was reading every review and checking too much…It was really, really hard because Marvel thought that movie was going to be really, really well reviewed, so they lifted the embargo early and put it in some fancy movie festivals and they sent us on a big global tour to promote the movie right as the embargo lifted.”

It seems that Kumail Nanjiani thinks Eternals was a dud partly because of this move, adding, “I think there was some weird soup in the atmosphere for why that movie got slammed so much, and I think not much of it has to do with the actual quality of the movie…” One can see just how this proved to be a mistake on Marvel’s part, and Eternals would gross just under $165 million domestically, a paltry number at least compared to what the studio was used to. It may have also been a signal that Marvel would have some major hurdles to get over in the post-Thanos universe.

Despite its poor critical reception – on top of the RT score, we gave it a 6/10 – Eternals does hold a much stronger audience score of 77%, showing the continued support of the franchise’s fanbase…and perhaps an interest in Kumail Nanjiani’s physique.

Even if Eternals didn’t land like he wanted, Kumail Nanjiani has remained steadily busy in between his therapy sessions, with works ranging from a stint on Obi-Wan Kenobi to leading miniseries Welcome to Chippendales to voicing in Illumination’s Migrations to next month’s Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire.

What do you think of Kumail Nanjiani’s reaction to Eternals’ reception? Did you like the movie when it came out? Let us know!