It turns out Thor: Ragnarok featured an Easter egg teasing Marvel’s Eternals, which is set for release later this year.
The Eternals comics were first created by Jack Kirby in 1976, giving him a chance to show off his artwork as well as introducing new cosmic mythology into the Marvel Universe.
Taika Waititi’s Ragnarok served as a love-letter to Kirby’s cosmic art with costume and set designers clearly influenced by his designs – the Grandmaster’s costumes, in particular, would have been recognisable to comic book fans.
It seems that Ragnarok’s inspiration may have served as foreshadowing with Marvel using designs taken from the Eternals and their cosmic creators The Celestials.
Now, one fan has taken to Reddit after spotting a specific Celestial Easter egg within Thor: Ragnarok.
Reddit user Initial_XD noticed a ship in the background of a scene where Tessa Thompson’s Valkyrie hops from ship to ship. The ship was taken straight out of Eternals #2 and was piloted by a Celestial named Arishem.
The user shared a photo and wrote, “Hadn’t noticed this little Easter egg before…and just in times for the ETERNALS.”
ScreenRant reports that the Celestials have been reinvented for the MCU and will now be a cosmic race who used the Power Stone to judge entire worlds and civilisations but somehow became extinct.
In Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Ego (Kurt Russell) was the last of the Celestials and possessed the power to manipulate matter on a fundamental level. This explains how Celestials can be as large as a planet – like Knowhere – or a normal-sized humanoid.
While the ship could simply be a cool Easter egg, it’s more likely to be foreshadowing according to ScreenRant. The Marvel Studios Visual Dictionary reveals the planet Sakaar, where the scene in Ragnarok takes place, is littered with corpses of Celestials.
There’s speculation that Eternals will serve as a prequel to the entire MCU and explain why the Celestials went extinct. It may also explain how the Celestial corpses ended up on Sakaar and how the ship got there.
The movie stars Angelina Jolie, Richard Madden, Kumail Nanjiani, Kit Harington, Salma Hayek and Gemma Chan among many others.
Whatever the story is, we’re going to have to wait a long time to find out, as Eternals isn’t out in cinemas until November.