Writers Kaz & Ryan Firpo Talk Landing The ‘Eternals’ Gig, Characters Who Got Cut & How Kang Was Almost Involved [The Playlist Podcast]

The names Kaz Firpo and Ryan Firpo are probably not names you recognize right off the bat. But somehow, these relatively unknown screenwriters were able to land one of the most sought-after gigs scripting one of the biggest films of 2021, Marvel Studios‘ “Eternals.” And in this episode of The Playlist Podcast, the writing duo talks about their incredible “Hollywood dream story” and some spoiler-y tidbits about the creation of “Eternals.”

Kaz and Ryan Firpo are two screenwriting cousins that somehow scored the gig of a lifetime really early in their careers seemingly out of nowhere. As Kaz Firpo explains in the discussion, their “Hollywood dream story” really is something that feels surreal. From making short docs to writing a spec script in a cabin to getting Black List recognition to pitching “Eternals” to Marvel Studios, the Firpos detail exactly how they ended up where they are today. 

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“Eternals” is the latest Marvel Studios film and follows the story of a group of immortal heroes created by the god-like Celestials, who are ordered to protect Earth from the evil Deviants. The film is directed by Chloe Zhao and written by Ryan & Kaz Firpo alongside Zhao and Patrick Burleigh. 

The duo shed some light on early details of the film’s script including the two characters that almost made it into the final draft of the script, but were cut to limit the Eternals from 12 members to a measly 10, which everyone agreed is a good idea. 

“We wrote two drafts of the movie before that director conversation even started,” said Kaz Firpo. “When Chloe read the draft we had already written, it had 12 Eternals. It had 12 characters we loved dearly, but, you know, 10 is a lot. So trying doing that with a full dozen…”

He continued by naming the two that were cut, “The Eternal, Zuras, who was the leader in the comics or the canon, and it was the Eternal, Valkin, who was a sort of healer. So what we did—and you can kinda see it pretty clearly in the film—Zuras was folded into, kinda neatly, into Ajak as the leader and in Gilgamesh as the surly, salty older man. And the same thing happened with Valkin—there were just too many powers to keep track of, too many arcs—and we folded his powers into Ajak’s and his role, a little, into Kingo.”

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Zuras and Valkin aren’t the only characters that were discussed for the film but ultimately didn’t make the cut. Early on in the process, the writers were thinking about a famous Marvel villain being involved, but ultimately, they decided it was probably not the best idea. 

“I would say that I was introduced to Kang through my research into the Eternals, and I was really fascinated by him and obviously, [Michael] Waldron and ‘Loki’ have brought him to life in a really exciting way,” said Ryan Firpo. “He was also somebody where I was like, ‘This could be cool.’ Especially because we’re dealing with immortality. There were even versions in the pitch where we were thinking that Kang could have gotten involved and sort of messed up the Eternals timeline a little bit. But then, you know, we kinda steered away from that. He was somebody I was really fascinated by.” 

Needless to say, if you’re looking for some Eternals discussion with folks that have some insider info, this is for you. You can hear the full interview below:

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