Eternals star still has trauma from the movie's poor reviews

Kumail Nanjiani has revealed that he sought counselling following the poor reception to Eternals.

The MCU movie told the story of immortal beings who come out of hiding after thousands of years to protect Earth from villainous Deviants.

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It received mixed-to-negative reviews from critics, though the actor did receive praise for his performance. The movie grossed over $400 million worldwide, but it is considered a commercial failure due to numerous Marvel projects reaching $1 billion in recent years.

It currently holds a rating of 2.64 on MovieMeter.

It seems the reception to Eternals took a major toll on some of its stars.

“The reviews were bad, and I was too aware of it,” he said on the Inside of You podcast.

"I was reading every review and checking too much. It was really, really hard because Marvel thought that movie was going to be really, really well reviewed, so they lifted the embargo early and put it in some fancy movie festivals and they sent us on a big global tour to promote the movie right as the embargo lifted.

“I think there was some weird soup in the atmosphere for why that movie got slammed so much, and I think not much of it has to do with the actual quality of the movie. It was really hard, and that was when I thought it was unfair to me and unfair to my wife Emily, and I can’t approach my work this way anymore. Some shit has to change, so I started counselling. I still talk to my therapist about that.

2.65 (542)

Eternals (2021)

An immortal alien race, created by the Celestials, has lived secretly on Earth for over 7,000 years. However, an unexpected tragedy forces them to emerge from their shadows after all these years. They must reunite to protect humanity from their evil counterparts, the Deviants.

Directed by: Chloé Zhao
Stars: Gemma Chan, Richard Madden and Kumail Nanjiani

“Emily (Gordon, wife) says that I do have trauma from it,” he continued. “We actually just got dinner with somebody else from that movie and we were like, ‘That was tough, wasn’t it?’ and he’s like ‘Yeah, that was really tough,’ and I think we all went through something similar.”

Would Nanjiani return in the MCU?

Nanjiani's character Kingo proved to be one of the more popular aspects of the movie, but the actor is clueless about his future in the MCU.

"I'm completely in the dark. I have no idea what's going on. Truly no idea what's going on," he previously told Collider when asked if we will see Kingo again.

"I genuinely don't know when or if Kingo is coming back to the MCU. I really have no idea. I'm just really excited about the direction they're going. The new people they've cast are really good. I just saw the new Black Panther movie, and I've never seen a blockbuster like that, that's so complicated and tragic, in so many different ways, but also really fun and funny and thrilling.

"So, I think they're really stretching and doing some great stuff right now. I'd love to come back and do stuff, but I genuinely have no idea."