Now Playing
(SPOILERS AHEAD) Marvel Studios’ Eternals is now in theaters, and there’s both a mid-credit scene and an after-credits stinger — but the latter left many fans scratching their heads.
Until now.
While it had previously been spoiled that Harry Styles officially entered the MCU as Eros in the mid-credits scene, exactly who was in the last clip was less clear.
The scene shows Kit Harington‘s Dane Whitman admiring a powerful family heirloom, the Ebony Blade, signaling his MCU future as the Avenger Black Knight. But he’s startled by an off-camera voice that warns, “Sure you’re ready for that, Mr. Whitman?”
The scene is reminiscent of Samuel L. Jackson‘s surprise appearance as Nick Fury at the end of 2008’s Iron Man, but sharp-eared fans knew the voice wasn’t Sam’s.
As it turns out, it belongs to two-time Oscar winner Mahershala Ali.
Director Chloé Zhao revealed to the website Fandom, “That was the voice of one of my favorite superheroes, Mr. Blade himself. Blade, Blade, Blade, yeah!”
It had been previously been revealed that Ali would be playing the Daywalker in a reboot of the franchise, picking up the stake from Wesley Snipes, who starred in three Blade films in 1998, 2002, and 2004.
According to Fandom, the “really cool” secret was even kept from Harington himself, who was fed the line on set by someone else.
“Chloé texted me about that a couple of weeks ago and it sort of blew my mind,” the Game of Thrones vet admitted. “I didn’t know that that would be the case, so it’s pretty exciting for me.”
Black Knight and Blade had worked together in a 2008-9 team-up in the pages of Marvel Comics.
Marvel Studios is owned by Disney, the parent company of ABC Audio.
Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
