Were Any Of The Eternals Blipped By Thanos? Chloe Zhao Has The Answer

Compared to most other movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, "Eternals" puts the awe-inspiring and almost overwhelming might of super-powered beings at the forefront of the film. Whether it's the Eternals themselves or the monstrous Deviants or the omnipotent Celestials, one could point to nearly any character at random as someone who would likely pose a significant challenge to any other franchise hero or villain we've encountered before.

Naturally, the cosmic connections in "Eternals" lent themselves to the question of whether or not Thanos himself and his snap (which continues to be referred to as "The Blip" in-canon for some reason, terminology that I personally find hilarious) were powerful enough to turn any of the Eternals to dust along with much of the universe. Director Chloé Zhao has an answer to that, but be warned that her carefully-worded comments can be interpreted as major spoilers. So read on only if you've already seen "Eternals."

Once again, major spoilers for "Eternals" follow. Don't yell at me if you ignored these warnings and went on ahead anyway!

To Blip Or Not To Blip

As the early opening title cards lay out the origins of the Eternals and their centuries-spanning conflict with the Deviants, it wasn't exactly a huge leap to assume that most of that information would probably turn out to be a red herring. Wouldn't you know it, Sersi's (Gemma Chan) attempt to gain an audience with the powerful Celestial Arishem leads to the mid-film plot twist that the Eternals were engineered by the Celestials to deal with the out-of-control Deviants. In essence, they're not living beings at all, but merely artificial creations meant to resist natural evolution and fulfill their one and only purpose. 

Armed with that knowledge, the issue of whether any of the team had been "blipped" by Thanos at the end of "Avengers: Infinity War" is kind of a moot point. As specified in "Avengers: Endgame," Thanos' actions only applied to biological life. "Eternals" director Chloé Zhao, a self-professed Marvel fan who clearly knows her stuff, brought up exactly this point in answer to the question posed by Cinema Blend:

"Well, I can't say this out loud, but if you think about... if you think about what the Celestials told them. If you think about what the Celestials told them about themselves, technically they can't get blipped."

Although this may feel like an underwhelming answer to that little mystery, it's also the most logical answer. I'm still not sure those involved with "Infinity War" and "Endgame" truly thought through the implications of having so much of the population snapped out of existence for five entire years and then abruptly restored, but this loophole at least sidesteps all that messiness and allowed Zhao to simply tell the story she wanted to tell with no other distractions. Although at the same time, this brings up its own little inconsistency. If not a single person on the team was snapped away into dust on a planet that saw 50% of its population vanish, wouldn't beating those odds be as ridiculously lucky as winning the lottery? Didn't that suggest that something to the team that their physiology was a little off?

That said, now we're getting into Cinema Sins territory. Most would probably agree that this minor logic nitpick merits anything more than some fun speculation, and that the proper response is, "Who cares?"

"Eternals" is currently playing in theaters.

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