Marvel Studios has pinned its next potential franchise, the Jack Kirby-created title The Eternals, and is moving ahead with development.

The studio behind Avengers: Infinity War has hired writers Matthew and Ryan Firpo, whose spec script Ruin shot to the top of the 2017 Black List, to pen the script for the superhero team adventure.

In comics lore, the saga of the Eternals began millions of years ago when the cosmic beings known as the Celestials genetically experimented on humans, creating the super-powered and near-immortal beings and a more monstrous off-shoot known as the Deviants. The two races moved behind the scenes throughout human history while also engaging in Game of Thrones-style cosmic powerplays.

Among the characters are Ikaris, fueled by cosmic energy; Sersi, who relishes moving amongst humans; and Thena, often mistaken for the Greek goddess Athena.

Kirby created the title in 1976 during his cosmic hero stage and influenced by such as works as Chariots of the Gods, which explored ancient gods as aliens. The comic was his part of his second sojourn at Marvel, which he had left in 1970 and done the then-unthinkable, moved to rival DC Comics.

The Firpos are best known for writing Ruin, a spec script that shot to the top of the 2017 Black List. Even before that, the project was emanating enough heat that it attracted Gal Gadot and got set up at Marc Butan’s MadRiver Pictures.

Ruin tells of an ex-Nazi captain who, to atone for his crimes, hunts down and kills the members of his former SS squad.

The Firpos are repped by UTA and LBI Entertainment.

SEPTEMBER 21, 2018 11:00am PT by Borys Kit

Marvel Studios' 'The Eternals' Finds Its Director With Chloe Zhao
Matthew and Ryan Firpo, whose spec script 'Ruin' topped the 2017 Black List, wrote the screenplay for the superhero team adventure.

Chloe Zhao has nabbed the gig to direct Marvel’s next potential franchise, the Jack Kirby-created title The Eternals.

Matthew and Ryan Firpo, whose spec script Ruin topped the 2017 Black List, penned the script for the superhero team adventure.

The project features the super-powered and near-immortal beings known as Eternals and a more monstrous off-shoot known as the Deviants that were created by cosmic beings known as Celestials.

Kirby created the title in 1976 during his cosmic hero stage and was influenced by such works as Chariots of the Gods, which explored ancient gods as aliens.

Sources tell The Hollywood Reporter that one aspect to the story involves the love story between Ikaris, a man fueled by cosmic energy, and Sersi, who relishes moving amongst humans.

The project also allows Marvel to assemble a diverse cast of various shapes and sizes.

The director search for Eternals narrowed in the last few weeks of summer, with a shortlist consisting of Watchmen pilot helmer Nicole Kassell, Travis Knight (Bumblebee, Kubo and the Two Strings), as well as Cristina Gallego and Ciro Guerra, the duo behind Colombian movie Birds of Passage.

Chinese-born Zhao was already well-known to Marvel as she went down the road with the company on Black Widow, the standalone featuring Scarlett Johansson's spy heroine. That gig ultimately went to Cate Shortland.

Eternals is a big opportunity for WME-repped Zhao who will be going from the settings of Native American reservations and American Heartland from her indie festival darlings The Rider and Songs My Brothers Taught Me to the epic global, if not intergalactic, scale of this Marvel project.

Marvel had no comment.

MARCH 27, 2019 4:26pm PT by Mia Galuppo
Angelina Jolie in Talks to Make Marvel Debut With 'The Eternals' (Exclusive)

Jolie is doing superheroes.

Angelina Jolie is getting ready to make her first foray into the world of superhero movies.

The Oscar-winning actress is in talks to star in Marvel Studios' The Eternals, a superhero team adventure feature being directed by Chloe Zhao.

Jolie has chosen the Marvel project based on the Jack Kirby-created title about superpowered and near-immortal beings known as Eternals and a more monstrous offshoot known as the Deviants that were created by the cosmic beings called Celestials.

While details about the movie are being kept under wraps, sources tell The Hollywood Reporter that one aspect to the story involves the love story between Ikaris, a man fueled by cosmic energy, and Sersi, who relishes moving amongst humans. It is unclear who Jolie will play. Marvel had no comment.

Zhao, an award-winning indie director behind the critical hits The Rider and Songs My Brothers Taught Me, will helm from a script by Matthew and Ryan Firpo.

While this will be Jolie’s first superhero movie, it is not her first comic book movie— she starred in the 2007 adaptation of Mark Millar’s Wanted.

Jolie is currently working with Marvel's parent company Disney on the upcoming Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, which was recently moved up to a release date this fall from spring 2020, and on the animation/live-action hybrid The One and Only Ivan, which she is also producing. The actress' upcoming projects also include Come Away, a fantasy drama from Brenda Chapman.

Jolie is repped by UTA and Sloane Offer.

“Game of Thrones” and “Bodyguard” star Richard Madden is in talks to join Marvel’s “The Eternals.”

Angelina Jolie and Kumail Nanjiani are also on board. Marvel declined to comment on the casting.

Madden will be playing Ikaris, a member of the human offshoot race known as the Eternals.

Created by Jack Kirby in 1976, the comic book is set millions of years ago when the cosmic beings known as the Celestials genetically experimented on humans to create super-powered individuals known as the Eternals, along with the villainous Deviants. The two groups battled each other throughout history. The Eternals also warred with Greek, Roman and Norse deities before leaving Earth to explore the stars.

Chloe Zhao, whose helming credits include “The Rider” and “Songs My Brothers Taught Me,” is directing “The Eternals” from a script by Matthew and Ryan Firpo. Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige is producing.

More to come.

“Crazy Rich Asians” star Gemma Chan is in talks to join Marvel’s “The Eternals” sources tell Variety.

Chan would join previously announced cast members Angelina Jolie, Richard Madden, Brian Tyree Henry, Salma Hayek and Kumail Nanjiani. Earlier this year, Chan portrayed Minn-Erva in “Captain Marvel,” but its unknown if she will be playing the same role in “The Eternals.” Some sources have indicated that her part in “The Eternals” would be a completely different role, which if true, would mark one of the first times a star will have played two different characters in the same cinematic universe.