If you haven't seen the new movie Eternals yet, be aware that this article contains information about the movie, so there are SPOILERS ahead. To the rampage of Marvel fans online, who could never have expected this, Marvel's latest film, Eternals, directly mentions the DC Universe, known to be the biggest two companies ever in the comic book superhero world, even in the present day. While this is not the first mention of the DC Universe in the Marvel universe, technically, with Fox's Deadpool 2 featuring a scene where Deadpool, a Marvel character, whose rights remained with Fox before the acquisition of Fox by Disney, who also owns Marvel, says "I'm Batman." With Batman being, of course, one of the most iconic superheroes ever, it was played for laughs and good fun.

Similar is the case with Eternals. After the release of the first teaser trailer, showing Richard Madden's Ikaris flying around and shooting lasers out of his eyes, fans on Twitter were quick to dub him "Marvel's Superman." Unbeknownst to them, this was already a joke being played in Eternals, where Phastos' and Ben's (played by Brian Tyree Henry and Haaz Sleiman, respectively) son, Jack (played by Esai Daniel Cross) notices the similarity between the two and upon seeing Ikaris, exclaims, "Dad! That's Superman." This is met by Ikaris, who acknowledges the similarity, but wittily responds, "I don't wear a cape."

However, this was not the only mention of the DC Universe, surprisingly. The other mention of the DC Universe, came in regards to Batman, where Ringo (played by comedian-actor Kumail Nanjiani), a cosmic-powered Bollywood star, introduces his assistant and friend Karun to the Eternals, who replied that he is "like Alfred." In a recent interview, director Chloe Zhao talked in length about the scenes, which fans have been dying to know more about, citing the mentions of the characters as an homage to the mythology the characters are an iteration of. She even called Ikaris, "the interpretation of that mythology."

Fans pointed out that while these scenes meant that the DC Universe had existed within the Marvel Universe for a long time, this was the first concrete mention of them. Director Chloe Zhao, hot off of an Oscar win for Best Director for her film, Nomadland, said that even though the characters exist in separate universes, "It doesn't mean we can't pay tribute and have a good time with these iconic ones that we all love to so much." This comes off of a long line of world-breaking and quips, starting with the comics themselves, when Jack Kirby and Stan Lee would mention themselves in the comic pages.

However, the deeper question remains, that with the existence of the Star Wars Universe in Captain America: Civil War, and now the DC Universe in Eternals, does the Marvel Universe exist in the Marvel Cinematic Universe? We may never know the answer. However, these world breaking dialogues played off as jokes are becoming somewhat common in recent years, with 2018's Venom,mentioning Kryptonite, and of course, Deadpool, Captain America: Civil War and now, Eternals confirming the existence of Star Wars and DC within the universe. While nothing can be said for sure about references in future MCU movies, one thing is for sure, fans will be sure to keep their ears sharp for any mentions of these characters in the movies of all universes, in the future.