Kaz and Ryan Firpo, the writers of Marvel Studios' ‘Eternals’, say that Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) was originally going to make an appearance in the film's end-credit sequence. The Chloé Zhao-directed film, overall, was one of the more isolated entries into the MCU mythos, largely steering clear of familiar faces and events from previous films. The two end-credit sequences that are present in the final cut of the film do connect to other corners of the Marvel universe, though they are forward facing in that they introduce brand new characters such as Thanos' brother, Starfox (Harry Styles), as well as the MCU's take on the vampire hunter, Blade (Mahershala Ali). No ‘Avengers’ make an appearance in ‘Eternals’ – an uncharacteristically bold choice for the franchise.
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Prior to Eternals, every project of Marvel Studios' Phase 4 slate has tied into the overarching Avengers storyline in some way. ‘Black Widow’, along with the three original Disney+ MCU series, all explored characters that were previously introduced in the Avengers films. ‘Shang-Chi’ followed an entirely new cast of characters, though it also ultimately tied into the events and characters of previous films like ‘Iron Man 3’ and ‘Doctor Strange’. ‘Eternals’ marks a stark departure from this tradition by remaining largely insulated within the lore of the ‘Eternals’ and their Celestial overlords. While the absence of legacy characters is one of the most unique aspects of Zhao's film, this was not necessarily always the plan.
In a recent interview, ‘Eternals’ writers Kaz and Ryan Firpo revealed their scrapped ideas for the film's end-credit sequences. According to them, early iterations of the film included an appearance by "Sam [Wilson] [...] at the very, very end, in one of the post-credits." However, the writers ultimately nixed this idea in order to delay the gratification of seeing the Eternals meet up with their ‘Avengers’-affiliated peers.
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