John Ridley Discusses His Own “Eternals” Project from 2015

John Ridley recently revealed he was working on an Eternals show of his own back in 2015.

What’s Happening:

  • Deadline reports that Academy Award winner John Ridley recently revealed he was working on a version of Marvel’s Eternals for ABC back in 2015.
  • Best known for writing 12 Years A Slave and the ABC anthology series American Crime, Ridley revealed that his initial pitch for Eternals was “weird,” including a cold open of an 18 year old boy pushing a drill into his ear.
  • Marvel, of course, released their own film version of Eternals to a mixed reaction back in 2021.
  • Ridley also discussed that the property was incredibly hard to adapt and he knew his version wouldn’t be as populist as needed for the property or for Marvel as a brand.

What They’re Saying:

  • “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.” – Ridley on Eternals
  • “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.” – Ridley on his adaptation

Marshal Knight
Marshal Knight is a pop culture writer based in Orlando, FL. For some inexplicable reason, his most recent birthday party was themed to daytime television. He’d like to thank Sandra Oh.