Kumail Nanjiani’s The Eternals character has a Bollywood secret identity

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

One of the more unique movies in Marvel Studios' upcoming slate is THE ETERNALS, which follows the events of AVENGERS: ENDGAME as an unexpected tragedy forces The Eternals, a race of ancient aliens who have been living on Earth in secret for thousands of years, out of the shadows to reunite against mankind's most ancient enemy, The Deviants.

The film boasts quite the interesting cast, including Kumail Nanjiani (DOLITTLE), who plays Kingo, a cosmic-powered Eternal who has a secret identity which is hard to beat – a Bollywood star. While speaing on The Deadline Podcast, Nanjiani explains how his character conceals his identity by hiding in plain sight.

A lot of it takes place in the present day. My character, for instance, is like ‘OK we’re supposed to keep a low profile, no one should know.’ So I become a Bollywood movie star, that’s my secret identity. We’re supposed to keep quiet and I’ve become the biggest Bollywood movie star.

If you're wondering whether this means that THE ETERNALS will feature a Bollywood dance number, well, all signs point to yes, which is part of the reason why Kumail Nanjiani got incredibly ripped for the role. "I took months of Bollywood dance classes to prepare for that. It’s really a workout… and you know, there’s like 52 dancers, and 51 of them are professional dancers, and then there’s me!" said Nanjiani. In the comics, Kingo came from a Japanese settlement and learned the ways of the samurai. When hiding among humans, he became known for starring in samurai films.

We haven't seen or heard much of the film yet, but Kumail Nanjiani has previously teased that THE ETERNALS may be more sci-fi, not to mention epic, than anything Marvel Studios has done so far.

It’s really, really an epic. And it’s really such a science-fiction story. It’s a superhero story, but in some ways, it’s the most sci-fi of all the Marvel movies and it’s the most epic of all the Marvel movies. And the story spans thousands of years. So it’s really not like any of the other Marvel movies.

THE ETERNALS is slated to hit theaters on November 6, 2020.