Kit Harington Met With Marvel A Year Before Eternals Casting
Marvel was so interested in working with Kit Harington, Kevin Feige met with him a year before he was cast in Eternals. The Marvel Cinematic Universe continues to grow both on television and the big screen, and the latest project to emerge from the behemoth franchise is Chloé Zhao's Eternals. Scheduled to arrive in theaters next week, the movie focuses on the titular group of cosmic beings both in the past, when they first arrived on Earth, and in the present. Tasked with protecting humanity from the Deviants, the Eternals have spent thousands of years living among the shadows
Eternals boasts an incredible cast filled with big-name actors like Angelina Jolie and Salma Hayek. Most are playing a member of the titular team, but Harington is one of the few human characters featured in Eternals' story. He plays Dane Whitman, who Marvel Comics fans will know eventually becomes a hero known as Black Knight. Dane's not quite there yet in Eternals, but it already seems like Marvel has some major plans for him. This marks Harington's biggest role yet since wrapping on Game of Thrones, where he memorably played Jon Snow for 8 seasons.
In a recent interview with The Playlist, Harington opened up about how he scored his Eternals role. While some actors aren't approached until a particular project arrives, he revealed he actually spoke to Marvel boss Kevin Feige a good while before Eternals rolled around. Clearly, Marvel wanted to do business with the onetime King in the North. Harington said:
I had a general meeting with Kevin maybe a year prior to getting the call about this movie, just about their new phase, and that there’s something for me in it at some point. And they had me in mind and that was an exciting meeting to take. And then I got a call about this movie from Nate [Moore], the producer, and I met with Chloe and they talked me through what this was about and the role that I’d fit into playing within it. And on that information, I said, “Yeah, I’d love to do that. Thank you.”
At this point, nearly every casting news in the MCU brings excitement, but Harington's back in 2019 was definitely one of the buzziest of the year. It makes sense that Marvel would be interested in finding a role for him after he became a major fantasy hero with Game of Thrones, and there's a lot of interest in seeing how he fits into the expansive universe. Dane/Black Knight has been glimpsed only a handful of times in the marketing for Eternals, so there's a lot of mystery surrounding his arc. Harington himself doesn't know what the future holds for him or Dane, but Eternals definitely feels like just the beginning.
Amusingly, Harington isn't the only Game of Thrones alum in Eternals, as Richard Madden plays the superpowered Ikaris. In all honesty, the entire Eternals cast and creative team is a major boon for Marvel, and it's clear the studio had an eye on some of them for a while. When Feige wants to work with someone, he'll find a way to make it happen. Now Harington is a part of the MCU, and it'll be exciting to see what he does within it.
Source: The Playlist