One of Thor: Love and Thunder's biggest surprises came when we were introduced to the MCU's take on Eternity. In the comic books, it's an abstract entity which embodies the Marvel Universe itself, but this version sat at the centre of reality and offered those who found it their heart's desire.
For Gorr the God Butcher, that was wiping every God in the universe out of existence. However, a crisis of conscience saw him wish for his daughter to be brought back from the dead, and the cosmically powered "Love" is now being raised by Thor.
Regardless of how Eternity factored into the story, what really blew the minds of many fans is just how comic-accurate the ancient being looked. Talking to us for the home entertainment release of Thor: Love and Thunder, VFX Supervisor Jake Morrison (Thor: Ragnarok, Ant-Man) explained the team's approach to bringing Eternity to life on screen.
"Certainly, we went through a lot of different options to get to that. I think we all kind of felt that. sometimes, less is more," he explains in the video below. "You either go fully realized, and there was a time I was asking the filmmakers, ‘Are we going to cast somebody for this? Is it ultimately going to be Morgan Freeman playing God again? Are we going to do that, because if we are, I'd like to know sooner, so I can go and get scans.’"
"I thought it was super smart, and this is Taika [Waititi] and the gang at Marvel [Studios], that that moment really belongs to the three actors. If you suddenly stuck another big CG creature in there who's gonna throw out a bunch of dialogue like, ‘No, choose!’ it could distract from a heavy emotional scene," Morrison adds. "They gave us a lot of freedom in VFX to make what I think was pretty brave choice to go as simple."
"Obviously, the great thing about working at Marvel is they've got the archives. I literally received a PDF saying, ‘Here's every single frame in order, Marvel canon, where Eternity ever spoke.’ You get stuff like that, so Sunday lunch is reading through it all on the iPad."
"I was really pleased where it ended up because it's not distracting. Are you familiar with The Neverending Story? It has a Southern Oracle feel to it," he concluded. "It's imposing, it's there, it's a big figure that looms over the scene, but you never lose focus on the trio in that scene."
Eternity's MCU debut proved to be an unforgettable moment and one that, as Morrison rightly points out, also ended up being an acting showcase for Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, and Christian Bale.
We're guessing this was meant as a one-and-done appearance for the character, but either way, Morrison and his team nailed Eternity. Be sure to watch our interview with him to hear more about Mjolnir's new abilities, Hercules' MCU debut, and the VFX cleverly hidden in plain sight in Thor: Love and Thunder.
Thor: Love and Thunder is now available on Digital and will be available on 4K, Blu-ray and DVD September 27.