Marvel’s ‘Eternals’ Actor Lauren Ridloff Reveals That One of Her Character’s Superpowers Is Her Deafness
Marvel Studios’ latest film, Eternals, is a part of Phase 4 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It tells the story of immortal beings who have been on Earth for the past 7,000 years, protecting humanity from their evil counterparts, the Deviants. Eternals also features the MCU’s first Deaf superhero, played by Lauren Ridloff. The actor recently talked about her role in the film and admitted one detail about her character’s superpowers.
Lauren Ridloff teases her character’s superpowers in ‘Eternals’
In Eternals, Lauren Ridloff plays Makkari, one of the Eternals who possesses the power of super-speed. In the comic books, Makkari is traditionally a white hearing male. But for the MCU’s adaption of the superhero, Makkari is a Deaf woman of color.
During an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Ridloff talked about her character’s superpowers. She said, “Let’s just say Makkari would not be as fast as she is if it wasn’t for her Deafness. I can’t wait for people to see the movie and be able to finally talk about it.”
Ridloff continued, “I kept wanting to check in about how we would actually reveal my Deafness in the storyline, and we finally got to a point where I felt like we could actually show Makkari as having a Deaf benefit or a Deaf gain. That’s a word that we use within the community to show the idea that being Deaf can actually be a good thing too, and we show that in the movie.”
So, according to Lauren Ridloff, Makkari’s super-speed abilities coincide with her Deafness in Eternals. We cannot wait to learn more about her character when the film premieres in theaters.
Lauren Ridloff discusses the diversity in ‘Eternals’
In the Los Angeles Times interview, Lauren Ridloff also discussed what convinced her to accept the role of Makkari in Eternals.
She said, “When I came to the process, Marvel already had a treatment, and these characters were written in the treatment, so I was very impressed by their fight for diversity. Not just in terms of gender, race. Different types of diversity. That’s one of the reasons why I was drawn to the project.”
Lauren Ridloff was also very impressed by Eternals director Chloé Zhao, the first woman of color to direct an MCU film. Ridloff said, “Just to know that I was working with a director like Chloé, I felt very safe. We went through this whole new path as the first Deaf superhero in the MCU, but under her direction, I knew that she would do me justice. And I knew that… authentic representation really is important to her.”
Marvel’s latest film is coming to theaters on Nov. 5
Eternals‘ premise reads, “After the return of half the population in Avengers: Endgame ignites ‘the emergence,’ the Eternals — an immortal alien race created by the Celestials who have secretly lived on Earth for over 7,000 years — reunite to protect humanity from their evil counterparts, the Deviants.”
Eternals features an ensemble cast who all play never-before-seen characters in the MCU. The film stars Gemma Chan, Richard Madden, Kumail Nanjiani, Lia McHugh, Lauren Ridloff, Brian Tyree Henry, Barry Keoghan, Don Lee, Salma Hayek, and Angelina Jolie as the Eternals. Oscar-Award winning filmmaker Chloé Zhao directed the film.
You can watch Lauren Ridloff star as Makkari in Eternals when the film premieres on Nov. 5 exclusively in theaters.
