Eternals’ Ikaris Twist Was In The MCU Movie’s Script From The Beginning

Warning: This post contains MAJOR spoilers for Eternals.

Eternals‘ shocking Ikaris twist was a part of the script from the very beginning, according to the movie’s co-writers. The latest installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Chloé Zhao’s Eternals, has officially arrived, and fans are still processing all of its major developments. The movie centers on the titular cosmic team, who were sent to Earth thousands of years ago to protect humanity from an evil alien race known as the Deviants. When a renewed threat in the present draws the Eternals back together, the once-close family find themselves dealing with obstacles they never could’ve imagined.

One of those obstacles, revealed more than halfway through Eternals, is dissension in their own ranks. Following the death of team leader Ajak (Salma Hayek), empathetic Sersi (Gemma Chan) is chosen to take her place. Sersi wishes to defy the Eternals’ creators, the Celestials, in order to save Earth from complete destruction as a result of the Celestials’ plans. Though not everyone is enthusiastic about the idea, it’s her former lover Ikaris (Richard Madden) who takes a stand by opposing Sersi and the rest of the Eternals so that the Celestials’ goals can come to fruition. A devastating flashback reveals Ikaris killed Ajak out of unwavering loyalty to the Celestials, as she too wanted to disrupt their plans.

It was quite a twist for audiences to process, and according to co-writers Ryan and Kaz Firpo, it was always a part of Eternals‘ story. Speaking to THR in a new interview, the Firpos responded to the question of how much they debated the Ikaris/Ajak twist and how early in the writing process it arrived. Despite being such a shocking development, it turns out the twist was always included in the story. They said:

Ryan Firpo: We had that idea early on. It’s really the foundation of the story, really. It’s the twist that’s the impetus of everything. That was an idea that came early on that was in tandem with the love relationship between Sersi and Ikaris and the other elements of that triangle. And then all leading up to the very end. All of those things were part of the early, early pitch stages.

Kaz Firpo: The big opportunity to have those twists and turns is something from the beginning we were interested in just as storytellers. Also, this is a challenging, different and exciting movie and the opportunity to do challenging, different and exciting things is one of the things that is most interesting to tackle in a story of this size and scope. We really did want to challenge these notions of good and evil and duty and responsibility and love and what makes a family.

For much of Eternals‘ run, Ikaris is presented as the perfect ideal of what an Eternal should be: Strong, powerful, and completely devoted to the Celestials. In many ways, he almost becomes the MCU’s version of Superman. That’s why his betrayal of not just Ajak, who he loves deeply, but also the entire team is so shocking. For a twist like this to work, it needs to be built up, and since the Firpos had it in mind from the very beginning, they were able to do just that.

Ikaris might not have been the most interesting character in Eternals, but his murderous turn provided some deeply intriguing layers to his seemingly noble persona. The ending of Eternals might not have offered an easy answer for whether he could return in future installments, but anything is possible within the MCU. It would be rather interesting to see where a character like Ikaris could go next after slipping down a darker path, and hopefully Marvel will choose to explore that.