The MCU has been standing on three Pillars for the last decade or so as it has been run by Iron Man, Captain America & Thor throughout the three Phases. It was Iron Man that held the house strong in the first Phase, then Captain America lead the MCU through Phase 2, into Phase 3, only to pass things on to the strongest Avenger, i.e. Thor. The God of Thunder has now become everyone’s favorite MCU hero, but people are sad that we might not get any more of HemsThor post-Avengers: Endgame.
But the good thing for many of us is that the MCU will expand itself even further by launching new properties like The Eternals. Since this project will take place a millennia ago, we could actually expect Gods and Demigods to be in it. And as we expected, Hercules is rumored to be one of the main characters in the story. Well according to me personally, I’d love that because that gives us a hope of seeing Hercules and Thor on the same screen someday, i.e. if Thor survives and Hercules somehow appears in the present day.
But folks from Screen Rant point out that the delayed entry of Hercules within the MCU might not be such a good idea, as he’s actually not needed anymore! Thor used to be this stoic brooding character who Hemsworth was slowly transforming into a light-hearted fun to be around bad-ass as time passed. By the time we reached Thor: Ragnarok, Taika Waititi and Chris Hemsworth ditched all the dead weight around the franchise and turned Thor into a much likable and omnipotent hero.
A young Thor who had a whole lot to learn in the first Thor movie was mostly a proud, fun-loving, reveling, womanizer (probably), and with Jane having left him (or as he may wanna call it a mutual break up), Thor has turned into that but only more responsible and experienced. It would be fair to say that he has deviated a bit from his character in the comics to work better on screen.
And now if you look at Hercules from the comics, he is a lazy, heavy-drinking, fun-loving womanizer who’s got a great sense of humor and a devil may care attitude! So that actually makes his personality sort of similar to that of Thor, and if we’ve already seen a character like that on the big screen that people actually love, anyone similar to him would seem a ripoff and will ultimately be dissed.
Sure, the backstory of both these characters will be different as Thor belongs to the Norse Mythology, and Hercules is a Greek Demigod. But if both the characters end up having similar personality traits, then Hercules as a character just might get wasted. If Marvel is indeed planning to bring in Hercules, then they will have to make some drastic changes to his character to differentiate him from Thor and for that, what I’m about to suggest may not be liked by many, but it could certainly work, and it may actually be what Marvel is planning to do!
Kevin Feige recently confirmed that The Eternals will have a Gay Lead character. Now as we know, the main leads of this film are going to be Ikaris and Sersi (Angelina Jolie), and those two are lovers. Even though this film will involve an ensemble cast, there can only be so many leads, usually not more than 3. The third lead as rumors suggest is going to be Hercules himself. Now to make him totally unique, and different from Thor, what if Marvel actually turns him into the LGBTQ Lead character that they are planning.
This may make many fans angry, but they have instilled their undying trust within the MCU, and if Marvel thinks that they can make it work, then the fans just might fall in line. And the fact that this will actually be true to the comics will certainly help the whole agenda of diversity that they are pursuing. Let’s what Marvel has planned for us. The Eternals will supposedly release on November 6, 2020.
