Despite bolstering an all-star cast and a direction under the helm of an Oscar-winning filmmaker, Eternals received mostly negative reviews from critics and it became the first MCU film to receive a "rotten" score in Rotten Tomatoes.
There is no doubt that it's not the kind of reception that everyone involved in the film was hoping for considering the caliber of talent attached and what it may have set up regarding the future of the MCU down the line.
So far, Marvel Studios has not announced any plans to do a sequel or even continue the characters' journey in other projects, but they are still being referenced through easter eggs or namedrops.
Now, one of the stars of the film has weighed in on the negative reviews and how it affected his mental health.
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Kumail Nanjiani Reveals He Started Seeing a Therapist Due to Eternals Negative Reviews
In his recent appearance on Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum podcast (via Variety), Kumail Nanjiani opened up about how the negative reviews of Eternals affected him.
"The reviews were bad, and I was too aware of it. I was reading every review and checking too much," he shared.
"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."
It also didn't help that the actor was doing a global press tour for the film at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"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," Nanjiani said.
"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 sh*t has to change, so I started counseling. I still talk to my therapist about that."
The actor continued, "Emily says that I do have trauma from it. 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."
It is understandable to hear the actor's frustration over the negative reviews since they all worked hard to make sure that the film would be of great quality and, considering Marvel Studios' track record, it is hard to reckon the idea that it may get slammed by the critics.
If Marvel Studios decided to bring back Nanjiani and his Eternals co-stars in another project, hopefully, they won't have the same experience again mentally and it will be more pleasant than their MCU debut.
Eternals is available to stream on Disney+.
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