Marvel's Eternals features one of the MCU's most star-studded ensemble casts, chief among them being Oscar winner Angelina Jolie. The A-lister and Hollywood icon has now opened up about what drew her to the cosmic comic book outing, citing director Chloé Zhao's unique approach and Marvel's desire to explore the idea of the "superhero" as major factors.

"I love this cast, and that we all came together. I signed up to support Chloé [Zhao]'s vision and Marvel's commitment to expand the way we see "superheroes". Running around in a gold bodysuit was not how I imagined my forties. But it's good crazy, I think."

Eternals will introduce audiences to The Eternals, a species of immortal aliens from a distant planet who arrived on earth thousands of years ago and have been protecting humans since the dawn of time. Created by the Celestials, a race of powerful extra-terrestrial cosmic beings who have secretly lived on Earth for over 7000 years, The Eternals must reunite to protect humanity from their evil counterparts. Jolie stars in the movie as Thena, a fierce warrior Eternal who can form any weapon out of cosmic energy. No doubt that shooting blasts of cosmic energy is something else the actress did not imagine she'd be doing in her forties, but she proves that it's never too late to become a golden-suited, energy-blasting superhero.

Directed by Chloé Zhao, Eternals stars an epic ensemble cast alongside Angelina Jolie, including Richard Madden as Ikaris, the tactical leader of the Eternals, Kumail Nanjiani as Kingo, an Eternal who can shoot cosmic energy projectiles from his hands, Lauren Ridloff as Makkari, an Eternal with the gift of super-speed, Brian Tyree Henry as Phastos, who poses super-intelligence, Salma Hayek as Ajak, the wise and spiritual leader of the Eternals, Lia McHugh as Sprite, who has the appearance of a 12-year-old child and can project lifelike illusions, Don Lee as Gilgamesh, the strongest Eternal and partner of Jolie's Thena, Gemma Chan as Sersi, an Eternal with an affinity for humankind, and Barry Keoghan as Druig, who can use cosmic energy to control the minds of others and who has become distant from the rest of the Eternals. Game of Thrones' Kit Harington stars as Dane Whitman, a human warrior who wields a mystical sword.

Jolie is not the first to praise Chloé Zhao's approach to the comic book genre, with Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige recently describing the filmmaker's pitch as the best he's ever heard. "Not only does Chloe make remarkable, small, personal movies in a remarkable, small, personal way, but she thinks in grand, cosmic, gigantic terms, which fit perfectly with what we wanted to do," Feige said. "Eternals is a very big, sweeping, multimillennial-spanning story. And she just got it."

Audiences will sadly have to wait a little longer than expected before meeting the Eternals, with Marvel Studios announcing a significant delay for some of their most anticipated movies. Both Black Widow and Eternals were due to open in theaters this year, but this will no longer happen, with the former now due to hit theaters on 7 May 2021, with the latter being released on November 5, 2021. This comes to us courtesy of Vogue.