Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige has confirmed that Kit Harington will be joining the MCU, but not as Wolverine as fans previously thought. The Game of Thrones star will be playing Black Knight in the new MCU movie The Eternals.
The announcement was made at Disney’s D23 Expo 2019 where Feige teased what was coming for Phase 4 of the MCU, including confirming that Harington would be playing the character of Dane Whitman AKA Black Knight.
Harington didn’t appear at the expo with the rest of the movie’s cast, nor did he appear in the character concept art that was revealed on stage.
Dane Whitman was first introduced into the Marvel Comics in 1967 as the nephew of villain Black Knight who passed the mantle to Dane, asking him to restore honour to their legacy. He has joined forces with the Avengers and the Defenders in the past, so it’s unclear how he’ll fit into the Eternals.
Because he isn’t an Eternal, it could mean that the character will spin-off into other Marvel films and perhaps even join the Avengers for their next film.
Harington’s casting will reunite him with his Game of Thrones co-star Richard Madden who will star as Ikaris in the film.
Fans have taken to Twitter to share their disappointment at the fact Harington won’t be playing Wolverine, following much speculation he would play the mutant.
The Eternals also stars Angelina Jolie, Gemma Chan, Kumail Nanjiani and Salma Hayek.
From the sounds of it, Harington is quite a recent addition as much of the cast didn’t even know he was in the movie.
Jolie spoke to ET about the news, saying, “I’m not so sure what we can say… I still think we’re seeing each other behind the scenes, like, ‘Did you hear…?’ I didn’t know Kit was in the film! It’s a whole thing. I’m thrilled, but I had no idea.”
She added that it felt empowering putting on the costume for her character Thena, “You get the outfit on and then you see your kids and the way they look at you like, ‘What are you doing?’ Then you get nicely brought back down to Earth, like, ‘You are so weird, mom!'”
If he is a recent addition it would make sense that it wasn’t announced at Comic-Con last month.
The movie is set for release in November 2020.