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The MCU is a star maker. Thor changed Chris Hemsworth from a guy with one outstanding scene at the start of Star Trek to an A-lister. Guardians of the Galaxy transformed Chris Pratt from the goofy guy on Parks & Recreation to an A-list action hero.
All actors know that, so it’s no surprise that someone like Kit Harington would go from saying “I don’t want it” over and over in Game of Thrones to “I do want it” as Dane Whitman, looking at the Ebony Blade in the post-credit sequence of Eternals.
In a career retrospective with British GQ, Harington revealed the deep-seated reason that he signed on to play Whitman, the human boyfriend of immortal machine Sersi (Gemma Chan) in Eternals and it’s a terrifically honest answer: “I’m not gonna pretend I took that [role] because it was different and interesting,” he confessed. “If Marvel calls, you gotta do it.”
Even big fans of comic character wouldn’t disagree. Dane Whitman is better known as the Black Knight, a C-list Avenger who has been around from 1967. So little-loved is the Black Knight among comic book fans that the character was shuffled off to the Ultraverse, back when Marvel bought the indie publisher Malibu Comics and its shared universe of superhero titles.
That said, Eternals did appear to have more going for it than the standard MCU fare. It was directed by Oscar winner Chloé Zhao and counted among its cast some of the best young actors of our generation, including Brian Tyree Henry and Barry Keoghan. Harington also got to reteam with Westerosi brother/cousin Richard Madden in the film.
Eternals met with terrible reviews and often ranks among the worst of the franchise’s entries. Yet, few would blame Harington for the film’s shortcomings. His playful take on a normal guy who finds out that his girlfriend’s ex is Ikarus, essentially Superman, gave Eternals some much needed energy.
Or, to put it less charitably, Harington stood out in Eternals precisely because he wasn’t a superfan of the comics. But it’s not common to hear someone in a fan franchise express such disinterest in the source material. Edward Norton name dropped Frank Miller when talking about The Incredible Hulk and Benedict Cumberbatch has spread pictures of him with Doctor Strange trade paperbacks on social media.
That said, Harington is part of a growing number of performers who don’t feel the need to pay deference to the source material. Recently, the ever-irascible Harrison Ford used the most practical of terms to describe his decision to join the MCU as Thunderbolt Ross and the Red Hulk in Captain America: Brave New World. When asked by Variety what it took to get him to join the franchise, Ford responded, “It took not caring. It took being an idiot for money, which I’ve done before.”
Assuming they exist, super-fans of Red Hulk or the Black Knight might take exception to the actors’ flippant perspectives. However, it’s important to remember that actors need room to create their own characters, instead of simply walking through the steps of stories that have already been told.
It’s hard to believe that Harington will ever come back to the MCU after Eternals, but given the shocking cameos in Deadpool & Wolverine, maybe he’ll answer the call from Marvel again.
The post Kit Harington Admits Why He Really Took Black Knight Role in the Failed Eternals Movie appeared first on Den of Geek.
