Kaz Firpo, one of the writers on Marvel Studios’ latest film Eternals, has confirmed that one of the titular superheroes, Ikaris, is dead.
Played by Richard Madden, Ikaris was the most powerful superhero among Eternals, with abilities similar to Superman including flight, cosmic vision, super-strength, superspeed, and so on. Later in the movie, Eternals learned that they are artificially created beings and the task given to them by the Celestials is just to make sure living planets are populated enough to birth more Celestials from their cores
While other Eternals join forces to stop the so-called Emergence, Ikaris breaks away and fights the other Eternals except Sprite, who is in love with him.
After he is defeated by other Eternals, he is guilt-ridden and flies into the sun, similar to the mythical Greek Icarus who died after flying too close to the sun. But many MCU fans hoped that he is not dead as like Superman, he may absorb sunlight to strengthen himself.
But Firpo has destroyed those hopes. He told CBR jokingly, “What is the melting point of an Eternal? How long does it take to literally melt an Eternal robot?”
He added, “For what it’s worth… yeah, it was always that. He can’t bear to face his family after what he’s done, which he realizes.”
Eternals, helmed by Chloe Zhao, released earlier this month. It evoked negative critical reception. On Rotten Tomatoes, it has a score of 48 per cent. The critical consensus reads, “An ambitious superhero epic that soars as often as it strains, Eternals takes the MCU in intriguing — and occasionally confounding — new directions.”