When it comes to making films, there are always aspects of original scripts that end up on the cutting room floor, whether it be for time reasons, or simply because certain sequences didn’t work out. That case is true even for Marvel films, which are orchestrated and planned down to the nanosecond to guarantee a faithful comics adaptation — even for Chloé Zhao’s upcoming film, Eternals.

Zhao revealed to Fandom that, despite ten Eternals already being present in the film in theaters on November 5, there were plans in early drafts of the script for two more characters to be included in its expansive lineup. Those two characters, which remain unidentified, ended up on the cutting room floor before filming even began, with Zhao confirming that she and her production team “had to let two go along the way.”

We may never know which two Eternals were meant to be included in the extraterrestrial hero team, but scriptwriters Ryan and Kaz Firpo and Patrick Burleigh certainly had a number to choose from, with the comics history of the Eternals including a laundry list of members, including characters with wild names like Oceanus, Interloper, Chi Demon, and even El Vampiro, which sounds less like an all-powerful superhero and more like a wrestler name.

But juggling ten characters was more than enough for Zhao and her team, having to make sure that each character was represented to their fullest ability on screen. “Some characters don’t need the most screen time,” she told Fandom, “It’s about what they do with the screen time. They have to be memorable. All ten of them had the same weight; not necessarily screen time, but the weight.”

Audiences will have a chance to see those ten Eternals, played by Gemma Chan, Richard Madden, Kumail Nanjiani, Lia McHugh, Salma Hayek, Angelina Jolie, Brian Tyree Henry, Lauren Ridloff, Barry Keoghan, and Don Lee, when Eternals hits theaters on November 5.

via Collider