Kumail Nanjiani is opening up about the toll Marvel’s Eternals took on him, revealing that the experience left him so shaken he turned to therapy.
Speaking on comedian Mike Birbiglia’s Working It Out podcast, the actor shared that the aftermath of the 2021 film — once expected to launch him into years of Marvel projects — became a central theme of his upcoming Hulu stand-up special. “I talked about how I was in this big movie. It came out right after COVID, so I had a year and a half at home to just be like, ‘Oh, when this thing comes out!’ But then it came out, and it got really bad reviews, and it didn’t do that well. It shattered me too much. That’s when I was like, ‘Oh, I need to go to therapy to figure this out.’”
The comedian explained he had envisioned a decade-long future inside the Marvel Cinematic Universe when he was cast as Kingo. “I was like, ‘Oh, this is going to be my job for the next 10 years,’” he said. “I signed on for six movies. I signed on for a video game. I signed on for a theme park ride. They make you sign up for all this stuff. And you’re like, ‘This is the next 10 years of my life, so I’ll be doing Marvel movies every year, and, in between, I’ll do my own little things, whatever I want to do.’ And then none of that happened.”
Released in November 2021, Eternals became Marvel’s worst-reviewed title to date, grossing $402 million worldwide against a $200 million budget. Despite introducing a sprawling cast of new superheroes, the film failed to find box office or critical momentum, and its characters — including Nanjiani’s Kingo — have yet to resurface in the MCU.
Looking back, Nanjiani admitted the disappointment forced him to re-examine his relationship with his career. “For me, what really hit me was just realising that too much of my self-esteem is tied up in other people’s reaction to my work,” he reflected, before adding with a laugh, “Also, other people have way bigger problems than this!”
Marvel, meanwhile, is building toward 2026’s Avengers: Doomsday, though no Eternalscharacters have been announced for the ensemble so far.