Nomadland, starring s McDormand, which was a heavy, emotional film that dealt with many difficult themes. The Chinese-born filmmaker has tackled a number of mature-themed topics in her previous efforts, which made her a compelling choice to tackle Eternals, a film with a diverse cast of characters struggling to fulfill their purpose on Earth as protectors.
Eternals stars Richard Madden, Gemma Chan, Kit Harington, Angelina Jolie, Salma Hayek, Bryan Tyree Henry, Lia McHugh, Kumail Nanjiani, Barry Keoghan, Lauren Ridloff, and Don Lee as a group of superheroes created by the ancient Celestials and put on Earth to guide and protect humanity. For Madden and Chan's characters, Ikaris and Sersi, are a couple early on in the film, but have separated in modern times, with Sersi involved with Harington's Dane Whitman. The film is said to be a love story between these characters, who all see the world from different perspectives, thus affecting their personal relationships with one another.
In an interview with Indiewire, Zhao comments on two of the main characters in the film having a sex scene, a first for an MCU film, which apparently was in the treatment before the director signed on. Zhao says that there was "a lot of discussion" about how to portray the scene, which ultimately appears in the final cut of the film. It's unclear which two main characters are in the scene, but with the love triangle aspect between Ikaris, Sersi, and Dane being a big part of the film, it's likely to be two of them. Zhao goes on to explain that she sees the sex scene as a natural progression, which stems from the "desire to do something different" at Marvel, which she says is a "very natural desire" for the studio right now. Zhao likens it to the "revisionist period of the 7os" where the process to take more risks begins to happen naturally. Zhao ultimately relates it as a "beautiful" on-screen expression, saying:
“For us to be able to show two people who love each other, not just emotionally and intellectually but also physically, and to have a sex scene that will be seen by a lot of people that shows their love and comion and gentleness — I think it’s a really beautiful thing.”
While this may be a first for the MCU films, it's not a first for the MCU at large. The Netflix Marvel shows, which are currently considered canon for the franchise, have had many sex scenes, some of them rather explicit for a superhero show. Deadpool's Fox-produced films may not be considered canon at the moment, the first film, which carried an R-rating, had some very explicit sex scenes between Ryan Reynolds and Morena Baccarin.
So, while Eternals may herald the first MCU theatrical sex scene, it's definitely not the first time sex and/or nudity was featured in a Marvel movie, regardless of who produced it. With the MCU being under the Disney umbrella, the prospects of seeing more explicit sex scenes in the franchise are a very long way off (if ever), so there's likely no reason to lock the kids out of the theater just yet. Still, depending on the context of the scene and how it's presented, it's likely friendly enough to present to PG-13 audiences, and with very little fanfare. Zhao does make a good point about the superhero genre naturally progressing with more mature themes, as the desire to tell more complex stories will almost certainly be a factor the longer the genre sits at the top of the movie food chain.
Source: Indiewire
