Mild spoilers for Eternals follow.
The reviews are in for Eternals, Marvel’s latest superhero offering, and the consensus by and large is that it missed the mark. Despite an epic narrative scope, a stacked cast, and Oscar-winning director Chloe Zhao behind the camera, the film is one of Marvel’s most plodding and joyless installments in years. Nevertheless, the MCU must always look ahead, and of course, this film features not one but two post-credits tags that set the stage for a few new and important additions to the universe. While the first post-credits tag was already spoiled ahead of time, there’s another that teases a compelling future for one of the movie’s characters—Dane Whitman (Kit Harington).
Dane only appears briefly at the beginning and end of Eternals as Sersi (Gemma Chan)’s human boyfriend, but there’s a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it reference to his family’s ancestral crest, which the post-credits scene circles back to. (Because of course, you don’t cast Jon Snow to just play the boyfriend.) The scene is simple: Dane stands over an old crate before opening it to reveal a sword. A voice (more on that in a bit) then asks Dane if he’s “ready” for it yet. This is a nod to Dane’s comic book history as the Black Knight.
In the comics, Dane inherits the mantle of the Black Knight, a continuation of a legacy dating back to medieval England and King Arthur’s reign. The first Black Knight (created by Roy Thomas and John Buscema in 1967’s Avengers #47) was Dane’s ancestor Sir Percy, whose death at the hands of his nemesis Mordred began the passing of the torch through Dane’s family. Dane specifically takes on the title from his Uncle, Nathan Garrett, who leveraged the power of the Black Knight for nefarious means. Garrett eventually crosses paths with Iron Man and is mortally wounded in the encounter. On his deathbed, Garrett confesses his sins to Dane and then asks him to restore honor to the family legacy by taking on the role of the new Black Knight. Like Dane says in Eternals, his family history is complicated.
In addition to donning protective armor, the Black Knight wields a sword known as the Ebony Blade. Crafted by Merlin, the Ebony Blade is a powerful weapon capable of cutting through any substance (yes, even vibranium) while also bestowing a healing factor and various other abilities. However, the trade-off for this immense power comes in the form of a curse: the longer the Ebony Blade is wielded, the more it corrupts its user. Specifically, the Blade draws out bloodlust and rage in its user in exchange for its tremendous power.
In a recent Black Knight series, the origins of the Ebony Blade were tweaked, resulting in the sword’s power directly correlating to the curse; the blade thrives on the spirits of flawed and imperfect wielders and becomes less potent if a person is entirely pure of heart. This revelation shattered Dane, who always sought to use the sword for heroic deals.
Even with the blade’s corrupting influence, Dane proved instrumental in helping the Avengers defeat Kang the Conqueror. Considering Jonathan Majors is playing Kang and looks to have a critical role in the rest of the MCU’s Phase 4, it’s likely we’ll see Dane show up to help them out. As for the MCU’s interpretation of the sword’s corrupting influence, the stinger seems to be planting those seeds accordingly. Could a potential Black Knight movie function similar to Eternals in terms of showing off a massive, time-spanning historical epic? Could the MCU go medieval, channeling Kit Harington’s time on Game of Thrones? The MCU has yet to build a film around a true antihero; Black Knight might very well be the first. Who knows what the ultimate direction might be, but as the universe continues to expand, there’s plenty of room to try something new—even if the bold swing of Eternals didn’t quite connect this go-round.
As for the voice speaking to Dane, Zhao confirmed it belongs to none other than two-time Oscar-winner Mahershala Ali’s Eric Brooks aka Blade. After his surprise appearance at Comic-Con in 2019 where Feige and Ali first announced plans for a Blade movie, the Daywalker has officially arrived in the MCU—even if he’s technically off-screen.
Blade and Dane have a small history together in print, as they joined up as part of MI-13, which functions as an English version of the Avengers. Plus, considering Blade ages slowly, it’s likely he crossed paths with one or two Black Knights of yore. Outside of that, the two don’t share much crossover, so it’s interesting that Eternals, of all places, was earmarked for Blade’s debut. At this time the Blade film, which is set to be directed by Bassam Tariq, still doesn’t have an official release, but there’s a rumor it may hit screens in October 2022. A vampire superhero movie just in time for Halloween certainly sounds like a Marvel type of move.