Variety reports that Gemma Chan is currently in talks to join The Eternals. Interestingly enough, Variety also reports that Chan may not be reprising her role as Minn-Erva, but rather play a completely different character altogether. If this turns out to be true, it would be one of the rare occasions where an actor portrays two different characters within the same cinematic universe.
Of course, if we take Marvel’s television series into account, things are a little bit different. We previously saw Alfre Woodard play the villainous Mariah Dillard in Netflix’s Luke Cage and also Miriam (the mom who’s pissed off at the Avengers) in Captain America: Civil War. Similarly, it was unveiled during SDCC 2019 that Mahershala Ali who portrayed Cottonmouth in Luke Cage has been cast as Blade in the MCU reboot. However, while Netflix’s Marvel content did start off loosely connected to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, that isn’t the case anymore. Kevin Feige has made it very clear over the years that the Marvel’s Netflix verse is not part of the official MCU canon. The Eternals is very much part of the official MCU canon. Which is why talks of Gemma Chan playing a different character within the same universe is very, very odd. Imagine Anthony Mackie playing Sam Wilson in one movie and then go on to play Rhodey in another. Having said that, seeing as how Gemma Chan was covered in makeup to an almost unrecognisable degree and that Minn-Erva is such a minor character, I guess it’s not that big of a deal. If the deal goes through, Chan will join an already stacked cast comprising of Angelina Jolie, Richard Madden, Ma Dong-Seok, Kumail Nanjiani, Salma Hayek, Brian Tyree Henry and Lauren Ridloff. Chloe Zhao is set to direct the film. The Eternals is set to be released in cinemas on 5 November 2020.
