The expanse of the Marvel Cinematic Universe timeline got much wider with the arrival of twisted counterparts, the Deviants.
While MCU movies have mostly taken place in chronological order so far, things will get a little more complicated in Phase 4. Black Widow was set before the events of Avengers: Infinity War. The Disney+ series Loki sent its titular antihero to different places in time and space, while also unleashing the multiverse at the end of season 1. Then there's Eternals, which will reach further back in MCU history than ever before due to titular heroes landing on Earth 7,000 years prior to the present day.
The film isn't in chronological order, either, bouncing around in time — from ancient Babylon to the present day and other times and places in between. Meanwhile, WandaVision was set three weeks after the Blip and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier was set six months afterward. Due to the five-year time jump between Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame, all of the Disney+ shows released so far actually take place in 2023, but the return of the Deviants in Eternals will actually happen in the summer of 2024 as it's been confirmed to be set around the same time as Spider-Man: Far From Home, eight months following the events of Endgame.
The plot of Eternals focuses on the titular characters' influencing of humans' evolution and development several millennia ago. While the majority of Eternals is set in the present day, the story goes back to when the heroes first arrived on Earth, exploring their time in Mesopotamia in 5,000 BC, and then in Babylon in 275 BC, the location of their last fight with the Deviants took place before they reemerged in the present. Early humans witness the Eternals arrive on a futuristic ship (that they bury and later dig up). The formerly spear-wielding hunter-gatherers begin harnessing agriculture, and soon enough, the Ishtar Gate — the gate to the inner city of Babylon, which was built around 2,600 years ago — makes an appearance. Eternals also visits a very dark time in history, that of the atomic bomb being dropped on Hiroshima in 1945. Phastos is shown being regretful that he inspired early humans to advance technology at all, seeing as how they used it for destruction and loss of life. It's here that he decides humanity is not worth saving.
In the present day, the Eternals have split up, with Sersi and Sprite in London, Ikaris in South Dakota, Thena and Gilgamesh in Australia, and Kingo in India. Crucially, the Eternals return to Babylon, which is modern-day Iraq to prevent Tiamut the Celestial from rising in the Emergence, bringing their story and timeline full circle. Ultimately, Eternals touches upon humanity's most important advancements, but sets the core of its conflict in present-day MCU. The real-life rise of agriculture has been said to happen between 7,000 and 10,000 years ago, without a single defined place of origin. The earliest humans depicted in the trailer already domesticated sheep, so the 5,000 BC setting fits the narrative accurately. Undoubtedly, Eternals will provide fictionalized but concrete explanations for many of humanity's essential historical events, including why the Eternals couldn't interfere too much in their affairs, especially after the defeat of the Deviants.
As more and more thwarting the Celestial's plans.
