Blade’s MCU Movie Can Fix Two Eternals Mistakes

Blade made his debut in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the post-credits scene of Eternals, but his solo movie can fix this and another mistake made in Eternals. The Infinity Saga is over and so is the original lineup of the Avengers, but that doesn’t mean the end of the MCU, which continues its expansion with its Phase 4. This new wave of content covers both TV shows and movies and continues the arcs of well-established characters, but it’s also introducing new ones, and it now has a new superhero team in the Eternals.

Directed by Chloé Zhao, Eternals introduced the title team, an alien race created by the Celestial Arishem the Judge and sent to Earth centuries ago to protect it from the Deviants, their evil counterparts. Once the Deviants were defeated, the Eternals stayed on Earth to help humanity evolve but weren’t allowed to interfere in their conflicts, which eventually created conflict between them and led them to part ways. The Eternals re-teamed many, many years later when the Deviants returned, their leader Ajak (Salma Hayek) was killed, and an apocalyptic event called “The Emergence” fast approached, and the reveal of the truth of their origin and purpose on Earth divided the team and led most of them to betray their creator in order to save Earth.

Eternals also introduced a human character who was believed to have a somewhat prominent role in the story but ended up showing up only at the beginning of the movie, briefly in video calls, and right at the end, including the post-credits scene. This character is Dane Whitman (Kit Harington), who in the comics has a full story as he takes on the mantle of Black Knight, a transformation fans were hoping to see in Eternals. It was through Dane that the MCU introduced Blade in the post-credits scene of Eternals, but this, along with Dane’s role in the movie, ended up being two of the movie’s biggest mistakes, but they can be fixed in Blade’s upcoming solo movie.

After starring in his own trilogy, with Wesley Snipes playing the role, Blade is now part of the MCU with Mahershala Ali taking over the character, and his debut movie looks to be part of Phase 5, but Marvel has already “introduced” him. In the aforementioned post-credits scene of Eternals, Blade shows up in a voice cameo warning Dane Whitman about touching the Ebony Blade, but instead of an exciting introduction, it ended up being quite disappointing. It wasn’t clear at the beginning who that mysterious voice was until it was confirmed by Zhao. It’s also unclear why Blade was there with Dane and what their connection in the MCU will be, and when compared to how other characters have been introduced in other movies (like Spider-Man in Captain America: Civil War or even Nick Fury in Iron Man, which came as a surprise), Blade’s “appearance” was underwhelming and a mistake left by Eternals, with the scene benefiting more from cutting his line completely.

There’s also Dane Whitman’s role in Eternals, which was so small it ended up being yet another mistake. When Harington’s character was revealed to be Dane Whitman, fans were excited about the possibility of seeing him take on his family’s legacy as Black Knight, but instead, he was left aside as a minor, dull character, and made into Sersi’s link to humans and Earth. The tease of him becoming Black Knight soon thanks to the Ebony Blade ended up being not as exciting because Eternals didn’t give him enough time and development for viewers to care about him. Dane is now linked to Blade thanks to the post-credits scene, so Blade’s solo movie can fix these two Eternals mistakes by expanding on their roles in the MCU and the connection between them, though that’s still risky as Dane can be overshadowed by Blade.

Eternals is not as bad as many MCU fans and critics have made it seem, as it does have its strengths and it was intentionally made as a very different movie from the rest of the MCU, but it has its flaws and made a couple of mistakes, mostly with two characters that had little to do with the main characters and the movie’s plot.