| “ | Do you think it was easy to live with the truth? To know that one day all this would end? To keep on lying to you? If we gave humanity the choice, how many of them would be willing to die so that billions more could be born? | „ |
| ~ Ikaris showing his true colors to Sersi and the other Eternals, while also demonstrating he did not like lying to those he cared about, but that he considered Arishem's ultimate goal the rightful one. |
| “ | I'm sorry. | „ |
| ~ Ikaris' last words to Sersi before flying into the sun to kill himself out of guilt for his reckless actions. |
Ikaris is the main antagonist of the 2021 superhero film Eternals, the twenty-sixth film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
As an Eternal created by Arishem the Judge, Ikaris initially serves the Celestial cause, defending humanity against the Deviants. He later learns his true purpose from his superior Ajak and chooses to remain loyal to Arishem, despite his fellow Eternals becoming sympathetic to humans, leading to conflict and betrayal. However, he has a change of heart, joins the Uni-Mind, and prevents the emergence of Tiamut the Communicator. After remembering the centuries he spent with Sersi, Ikaris flies in the Sun to commit suicide out of remorse for his actions.
He was portrayed by Richard Madden, who also played John Reid in Rocketman.
Biography[]
Background[]
Ikaris was created by Arishem the Judge as a synthetic life form with the purpose of getting rid of the Deviants, also beings created by Arishem to kill predators on other planets, so intelligent beings on those planets wouldn't be killed by them, and then could serve as fuel to the Celestials that were going to be born in the center of these planets, in an event known as the Emergence, in which entire galaxies would be created with the new Celestial's help, creating a life and death cycle. He and the other beings with the same mission of Ikaris were called the Eternals, as they were immortal. Ikaris, along with Ajak, were the only two among their group of Eternals that retrieved their memories after each Emergence, while the other members did not remember and thought that their mission was to kill Deviants so intelligent life could evolve, not knowing that it would be sacrificed for a new Celestial to be born.
The Earth Eternals Group[]
Ikaris' most recent mission as an Eternal was to eliminate all of the Deviants on a planet known as Earth, inhabited by humankind, in a team composed of Ajak, the Prime Eternal, Sersi, Phastos, Sprite, Kingo, Druig, GIlgamesh, Thena, and Makkari. They, especially Sersi, sympathized with and admired humanity, fearlessly protecting them from the Deviants for thousands of years. Ikaris started falling in love with Sersi, one of the group's most compassionate members, and probably the one who liked humans the most. They married in an Indian civilization, and lived together for years until, during an attack they suffered from Thena, their teammate, who was suffering from an illness known as Mahd Wi'ry, that made her lose control of herself. Ajak then told the Eternals that they should no longer live protecting Earth from Deviants, as said creatures were already extinguished, and should live their own lives on Earth, to experience what an actual life feels like.
Reuniting with the Eternals[]
At some point between the last time the Eternals were together and the present, Ikaris and Sersi divorced. In 2023 he decided to reunite with the other Eternals, first he went to London to meet with Sersi and Sprite. Here he met Dane Whitman, the new love interest of Sersi and they were attacked by the deviant Kro. After a short fight, Kro managed to escape but not before healing his wounds using the same power of Ajak, which surprised the group. After this incident, Ikaris, Sersi and Sprite went to South Dakota worried about what could have happened to Ajak. Unfortunately they found the corpse of Ajak in her house. After checking her body, the orb of Ajak activated and was transferred to Sersi, giving her the ability to communicate with Arishem, and becoming the new Prime Eternal, the three Eternals decided to reunite the team in order to stop the Deviants.
Ikaris now goes to India to meet with Kingo (who is now a Bollywood star). Kingo didn't want to leave his new life but Ikaris informed him about the death of Ajak. Also, Kingo's assistant, Karun Patel encouraged his boss to follow them. Kingo finally decides to join them. Ikaris and the rest of the Eternals then left on a plane to their next destination.
Ikaris and the team arrived in Australia to reunite with Gilgamesh and Thena. Ikaris arrives to their home and found out that they had been attacked by a Deviant as well. As Gilgamesh opened his door to them, Ikaris explained that he had not managed to kill Kro before he fled and informed Gilgamesh of Ajak's demise, leaving him deeply upset. Ikaris then joined the group to meet Thena, whose Mahd Wy'ry had resurfaced due to the recent attack of the Deviant. The team enjoys dinner and jokes about Ikaris being the new leader of the Avengers. After that, Sersi tries to communicate with Arishem and learns about the true purpose of the Eternals. After telling the truth to her friends, the entire group, alongside Ikaris decide to stop the Emergence.
Meeting with Druig and Deviant's Ambush[]
Ikaris thus accompanied the other Eternals to the Amazon Rainforest to meet Druig, who has established a secluded community. Sersi explained to Druig about the situation but he flatly refused to join them which made Ikaris pretty angry. As the night came, Sersi asked Ikaris why he abandoned her but at this precise moment, Ikaris was attacked by a flying Deviant who took him up in the air. Ikaris kills it with his optical beams. However, Kro attacks Ikaris from behind. Ikaris got rescued by Gilgamesh. Then Thena started to suffer another Mahd Wy'ry crisis, causing her to attack him. Ikaris was able to avoid her attacks long enough for Gilgamesh to intervene once again and stop Thena. Now Ikaris is forced to let Gilgamesh fight Kro alone due to having to stop two flying Deviants that are trying to attack the village.
Ikaris chased them and in the village he saved Druig from a wolf-like deviant. Then Ikaris attacks a Deviant which threatened Sprite and Kingo. During the ensuing brawl, Ikaris was knocked into a cabin by the Deviant which pinned him on the ground, and Ikaris struggled to break free despite firing his lasers at the creature. However Sersi manages to save Ikaris from the Deviant by turning it into a tree, something she had never been able to do before which shocks Ikaris. Then Ikaris returned to fight Kro, only to find out that the Deviant had absorbed Gilgamesh's powers before fleeing, leaving the strong Eternal to die. Ikaris mourned his fallen comrade, attending the funeral held in his honor in silence. After this incident, Druig finally agrees to join his old friends.
Returning to The[]
Ikaris and Sersi went to Chicago to talk with Phastos, whose skills were needed to stop the Emergence. Here, Ikaris met Ben Stoss (Phastos's husband) and their son. Ikaris insisted that he must accompany them. Phastos promised himself to never use his powers again and didn't wanted to rejoin the group but his husband convinced him to follow them.
Now the Eternals travel to Iraq, where Phastos unearthed the Domo and here, the team finally meet Makkari, the last member of the Eternals. Ikaris listened to Phastos' theory of the Uni-Mind, which could be used to give Druig enough power to put Tiamut the Communicator to sleep and thus prevent his Emergence.
At this point Sprite noticed that Ikaris didn't approve of the plan. She pressured him to give his opinion, but Ikaris eluded her and left the room and he was followed by Kingo, who assured him that he would follow Ikaris to the end. Ikaris then exited the Domo.
Showing his True Colors[]
After this, we have a flashback from six days ago. Ikaris is talking with Ajak and she tells him that the Emergence is finally going to happen. Ikaris is happy knowing this. However, much to his shock, he realized that Ajak, inspired by the Avengers’ actions, had gained an affinity for humanity over time and planned to prevent the Emergence of Tiamut the Communicator with the other Eternals. Ikaris totally refuses to let this happen and then he led Ajak to Alaska where he knew that a pack of surviving Deviants had emerged from the ice. Ikaris explained that he planned on Ajak's death to distract the other Eternals long enough for the Emergence to occur. He then pushed Ajak off a cliff, sacrificing her to Kro and the Deviants, revealing that he's the one who caused Ajak's death.
Ikaris watched Ajak's death from a distance before reclaiming her body and placing it back in front of her house. Even if Ikaris considered this necessary he still felt extreme remorse for Ajak's death.
After this flashback, Ikaris is abhorred by Sersi. Ikaris voiced his disagreement to her, citing his loyalty to the Celestials and stating that Sersi was all that mattered to him as he still loved her. After sharing this short moment, Sersi entered the Domo and told the team that the Emergence was about to happen. Then Ikaris returned to the Domo main room and destroyed Phastos' design for the Uni-Mind. Ikaris admitted that he had known the truth about the Emergence for centuries and that he had killed Ajak. The Eternals where shocked and heartbroken by Ikaris's betrayal, his foolish beliefs on letting innocents die and for murdering Ajak.
As Makkari returned after locating the point of Emergence, Ikaris attacked her, but she was protected by Kingo, who blamed Ikaris for the death of Gilgamesh when he saved him. Ikaris then stated that he was ready to kill the other Eternals as well to make sure that the Emergence occurred. He then decided to leave, being followed by Sprite who had always been in love with him. As Thena arrived and inquired about the situation, Ikaris nearly attacked her, but Sprite used her powers to make them both leave the Domo.
Final Battle and Death[]
All of the Eternals (except Kingo who totally refused to fight his old comrade) are now forced to fight Ikaris in order to stop the Emergence. Phastos re-created the Uni-mind using the orb of Ajak. Meanwhile, Ikaris flew to the volcano to contemplate the emergence of Tiamut the Communicator. He expressed his gratitude to Sprite for standing by his side and, as the Domo approached, instructed her to protect the Emergence at all costs.
Ikaris enters the Domo using his optical beams and was quickly confronted by Thena. Ikaris manages to defeat Thena and pins her to the wall, but then noticed the golden aura of the Uni-Mind surrounding her. Realizing that Thena had merely been a distraction, Ikaris left the Domo and saw that Druig was already trying to stop the Emergence.
Ikaris attacks him from behind, causing the Uni-Mind to break. He then seized Druig and took him up in the air before throwing him back into the ground and burying him with his optical beams, leaving him for dead. Ikaris was suddenly attacked by Makkari, who used her superhuman speed to plunge him onto the cliff. Ikaris attempted to retaliate, but Makkari avoided his attacks and relentlessly attacked him.
However, Ikaris was ultimately able to block Makkari, grabbing her and firing his optical beams at her chest to incapacitate her. Thena and Phastos are now also fighting him. Ikaris manages to control the fight and block some attacks but he was suddenly attacked by Kro who joined the fight. Thena decides to follow Kro to avenge Gilgamesh. Ikaris tried to fly away to find Sersi but was restrained by Phastos's artifacts.
As the Emergence progressed, Ikaris saw Tiamut's head and hands appearing from under the sea. Ikaris mustered his full force to break free of Phastos' rings, and promptly flew to confront Sersi. He attempted to attack her, but found himself unable to do so due to his still profound love for her. As a result, Ikaris could do nothing but allow Sersi to stop the Emergence, even taking part into the Uni-Mind himself to give her the necessary cosmic energy, thus enabling Sersi to achieve the Eternals' plan, turning the whole body of Tiamut into marble.
After this, Ikaris felt extremely devastated for failing the mission and combined with the remorse of having betrayed his friends, Ikaris decided to commit suicide by flying off the planet and into the sun.
Gallery[]
.png "Ikaris (Marvel Studios' Eternals).png (617 KB)")
Trivia[]
- Armie Hammer, Charlie Hunnam, Alexander Skarsgård and Sam Heughan were all considered for the role of Ikaris before Richard Madden was cast.[1]
- In the movie, it is revealed that Sprite engineered the Greek mythos of the tale of Icarus, a man who could fly with wings made of wax and died flying too close to the sun. This turns to be foreshadowing for Ikaris' death, in which he apparently kills himself by flying directly into the sun.
- In the comics, Ikaris adopted the name of his human son Icarus (implying he was originally the craftsman Daedalus), who died while he was flying with mechanical wings created by Phastos and Makkari, and became the source of the myth.
- In the comics, Druig is the one who betrayed the Eternals as he is power-hungry, and often enters into opposition with the other Eternals in an attempt to usurp power and control them. However, in the film, Ikaris turned against the Eternals as they’re interfering with Tiamut's Emergence, even killing Ajak to do so. Druig, on the other hand, while still haughty and does seedy methods, was ultimately on the Eternals' side in stopping the Emergence. There is a likely chance that this was an intentional red herring.
- Ikaris is considered as a foil to the classic DC superhero Superman, due to having the same powers. In fact, Eternals director Chloé Zhao admitted that Henry Cavill's Superman was the inspiration of Ikaris in the movie.[2]
- Phastos and his son in Eternals refer to Ikaris as Clark Kent/Superman as well.
- Phastos calling Ikaris "Isaac" is a reference to an A.I. of the same name from the comics which is in the service of the Eternals.
- He's the fourth antagonist in Marvel Cinematic Universe to commit suicide after Whiplash, Heinz Kruger and Crossbones respectively.
External Links[]
- Ikaris on the Heroes Wiki
- Ikaris on the Marvel Cinematic Universe Wiki
