"Cancelled" Marvel characters reportedly set to return; comeback imminent

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has been going through a bit of a reset in recent years. Certain projects from the franchise haven't been hitting quite as hard with audiences as their sure-fire predecessors did, and it has forced Marvel Studios to re-evaluate which titles and characters to focus on going forward.

Over the past year, there have been reports that projects such as Disney Plus series She-Hulk: Attorney At Law have been quietly cancelled by the studio, while plans have been made to bring back shows such as Hawkeye and Moon Knight for second seasons. Further reports have claimed that film projects such as Eternals, The Marvels, and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania have had their planned sequels cancelled due to their underperformances at the box office.

The good thing about when a project within the MCU has been cancelled is that there is always a possibility that the character could show up again in the near-future. The franchise is vast, with crossovers all the time. And whether it be an Avengers movie or a supporting role in another film (like Doctor Strange's appearance in Spider-Man: No Way Home or Captain Marvel's own cameo in Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings), there is always the chance of an MCU return.

The good news is that a group of characters who had their MCU return cancelled will reportedly make multiple comebacks, including one that is imminent.

The Eternals will appear in What If...? season 3 (before an inevitable live-action return)

According to insider Alex Perez, the Eternals will eventually return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The scooper posted this on their social media account AlexFromCC, responding to a fan question about the characters' involvement in the upcoming third season of Marvel's What If...?, confirming that the Eternals will have an episode dedicated to them.

The first trailer for the animated series' third season was recently released and it featured Agatha Harkness and Eternals' own Kingo facing off with Arishem, so there is a highly likely possibility that this could be the episode in question. Either way, it will be great to see the MCU once again acknowledging the Celestials and their backstory, because ever since the movie released, all has been quiet on the Eternals front.

Eternals arrived in movie theaters back in November 2021 as just the third movie in the Multiverse Saga. It was an origin story like its predecessor, Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings, but while that movie was a critical and commercial hit for the franchise, Eternals struggled in both departments. At the time of its release, it became the lowest-scoring MCU movie on Rotten Tomatoes, while it grossed $30 million less than Shang-Chi (on a much bigger budget and a star-studded cast).

Ever since then, fans have been speculating about its fate. The fact that it started a whole new chapter of lore for the franchise made it somewhat easy to overlook in subsequent titles, but that idea doesn't necessarily sit well with fans of it either. The MCU isn't known for dropping storylines and never revisiting them (heck, next year's Captain America: Brave New World will pull on threads that were left over from 2008's The Incredible Hulk), so it goes without saying that there always plans to revisit the characters at some point.

In fact, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige recently confirmed that there were no plans for a sequel right now, essentially confirming years of speculation that Eternals 2 had been cancelled. And thus, fans wondered when - or if - the Eternals would return. It seems that we now have that answer.

What If...? may not be canon to the main MCU timeline, but the Eternals' immediate return in the franchise is at the very least an acknowledgement of their existence. And if that paves the way for their eventual return in a live-action MCU project like the above report suggests, we couldn't be happier to see them again. Time to pull on that thread, Marvel!