Almost eight years ago, Marvel Television announced 12 Years a Slave screenwriter and prolific author John Ridley was taking on a new series for the company. However, the show’s premise was a mystery. Later, Marvel quietly shelved it. MCU fans have wondered for years what that series might be. Well, thanks to an appearance on the Comic Book Club podcast (via Deadline), Ridley revealed the Marvel property he was developing for television was actually Eternals. The Oscar winner said “It was a television version of the Eternals… But good.” Ouch. (For the record, we liked it fine). Here’s what he had to say about his version of Jack Kirby’s space gods:
“My version was the good version. It was so f***ing weird. There was my version, a good version, which is good to me, which — that doesn’t mean anything. There was the version that [Marvel] ended up doing, which I don’t think… that version was particularly good. I’ll be honest.
My version started with, the first thing you see is a young man, probably about 18 years old. And he’s sitting there. He’s sitting there for a moment. And then he lifts his hands. He has a drill in it. And he turns the drill on. And he puts the drill to his ear. And he starts pushing it in. And then it goes from there. That’s the start, right? That’s how it starts. And then I think you see… another kid… He sleeps in the bathtub, covers himself with foil. It’s just a really weird story about these people who are, I mean, it’s just weird.”
Marvel ultimately passed on Ridley’s version of Eternals, and the writer didn’t really give a reason why, except that he didn’t think his version was “very entertaining.” We’re going to put our speculative caps on, and give another possible reason. Marvel TV took Inhumans, originally announced as a film, and turned it into a TV series in 2017. The results were a disaster, and Inhumans was a critical and ratings disappointment. After that, we could see Marvel thinking an epic Jack Kirby sci-fi saga might be better suited for the big screen instead. Yes, many fans did not care for Eternals, but in the words of Marty McFly in Back to the Future, “I guess you guys weren’t ready for that. But your kids are gonna love it.”