“I signed for 6 films!” This ancient eternal tells his descent into hell

We have never seen Kingo again. And Kumail Nanjiani had trouble recovering. He confides today.

He had touched the Grail by signing at Marvel. And then nothing went as planned, for Kumail Nanjiani.

Humorist of Pakistani origin, star of TV and indie cinema, he became in 2021 the Kingo superhero in The eternal. And he thought it was going to be his life for a decade. Kumail Nanjiani says today having signed for 6 Marvel films. A contract that has never been performed against the critical and public flop in the film. A failure that deeply affected him and pushed him into the cabinet of a shrink.

Podcast guest Working it out From humorist Mike Birbiglia, Kumail Nanjiani confides without detour on this experience, which he will soon tell on stage, in his new stand-up show, planned at Disney, later this year:

“I played in this big film. It was released just after the covid, so I had a year and a half to say ‘oh, when it will come out, it will be huge!’ But then it came out, the criticisms were very bad and the film did not work well.

The actor explains that he thought he was going to be much more involved in the Marvel universe, than thanks to Eternalhe had joined a franchise, a long -term business:

“I said to myself: it’s going to be my job for the next ten years! I signed for 6 films, a video game, a attraction in a theme park … They make you sign for all this. And you say to yourself: ‘It’s going to be the next ten years of my life, so I will make Marvel films every year and, in the meantime, I will do my little projects.’ And then none of it happened. “

Released in November 2021, The eternal was the film of the MCU the least well received by criticism until then and reported $ 402 million worldwide, a result considered disappointing for a marvel blockbuster in the 200 million budget. Since then, Kingo and the other heroes of Eternal have never reappeared in a live-action Marvel project.

Besides, for the next Avengers: Doomsday (2026), which will bring together characters from different films, no member of the casting of Eternal was not invited.

“What really struck me was to realize how much my esteem of me was dependent on the reaction of others to my work”, Nanjiani reflects before concluding philosopher: “But hey, after all, others have much more serious problems than that!”