Remember the shock that ran through the film world when Chloé Zhao, fresh off winning the Best Director Oscar for 2020’s Nomadland, was announced to be helming Eternals? It seemed like the MCU might finally hand in something that even Martin Scorsese would classify as “cinema.” And yet, as things turned out, Eternals remains the joint-lowest rated Marvel Studios film on Rotten Tomatoes and Zhao’s career… has not gone the way her fans expected it to, let’s put it that way.
The live-action launch trailer for Blizzard Entertainment’s Diablo VI has released (see above), and it’s raising eyebrows for being directed by Zhao. While it’s important to stress that Zhao is known to enjoy horror, hence her upcoming Dracula adaptation, so she may well be a fan of the gothic game franchise, social media is having a field day with an Oscar-winning filmmaker helming the trailer for a video game. The perception is very much that Zhao’s standing in the industry must have taken a considerable hit.
While some may be wondering how this happened, others aren’t so mystified and are laying the blame directly on Eternals‘ doorstep.
As one user put it, “Kevin Feige owes this woman serious reparations is all I’ll say.”
Naturally, a lot of Tár jokes are being made right now.
Others questioned if this headline is actually the plot of Tár 2.
Spoilers for those who haven’t seen Tár — the movie memorably ends with disgraced composer Lydia Tár (played by another MCU alum, Cate Blanchett) only able to find work conducting the score for a Monster Hunter game. So that’s why some are seeing Zhao’s Diablo trailer as being a “grim parody of falling off.”
Twitter user SenorWoberto had the fieriest take, however, arguing that “the detrimental effect [Kevin Feige] has had on [Zhao]’s career has to be studied.”
Although it doesn’t fit the narrative that Feige has flushed Zhao’s career down the toilet, just last month saw the director announced to be helming Amblin’s William Shakespeare drama Hamnet starring Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley. Plus, Eternals 2 (vaguely) remains on the cards and being best pals with Brie Larson probably doesn’t hurt either. Eternals might not have been the smash Marvel might’ve wanted, but let’s not discount Zhao just yet.
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