Last week, “Eternals” filmmaker Chloe Zhao talked about how she was hoping Disney and Marvel Studios would fight back against censoring her film when it debuts overseas. And it appears the studio is holding firm and will not censor the film, despite losing revenue along the way.
According to Deadline, it appears Marvel Studios’ new film, “Eternals,” will not be playing in territories such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Oman reportedly due to the studio’s unwillingness to censor the same-sex relationship in the film for those countries. Previously, we’ve seen plenty of studios take out material that other territories were upset over because of religious or governmental reasons, but it appears that Disney is willing to lose box office revenue in those aforementioned countries, as well as possibly more to come, to preserve a large inclusive part of the superhero film.
For those unaware, without going into spoilers, “Eternals” is the first Marvel Studios film to feature a LGBTQ superhero, with Brian Tyree Henry’s Phastos being shown to have a husband in the film. More than what has previously been seen in Marvel films and TV series, Phastos is shown kissing his husband and we’re given a peek into their home life instead of just a passing mention of his sexuality.
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Marvel Studios has made it clear the LGBTQ representation will only increase with future TV series and films. So, it’ll be interesting to see if these territories will continue to ban those movies from showing in their local cinemas or not.
“Eternals” arrives in theaters on November 5.