Disney and Marvel give us a behind the scenes look at one of its most recent Marvel Cinematic Universe movies with “Assembled: The Making of Eternals.” Director Chloe Zhao and the actors who play Marvel’s 10 newest superheroes take us on a journey to see how the film came to be from costume design to shooting on location to developing a new storyline to follow the wildly popular Infinity Saga. We learn how the cast actually met each other at the same time they were being introduced to the world as the Eternals. And we learn what moments were favorite among the cast.

This is one of my favorite episodes of this behind-the-scenes docuseries. I knew very little about the Eternals going into the movie, so it’s good to learn a little about the characters and the actors who bring them to life. When it’s a character I’m familiar with I don’t need that much of a backstory, but with characters like the Eternals and Shang-Chi, I need a little bit of backstory to see how the comics inspired this movie and how the film deviates from the source material.

It’s really interesting to see how the actors envision each of the characters as a whole and how the actors playing that role have chosen to embody those characteristics. If you’ve seen the film, you know the strengths of each of the Eternals, but it’s always interesting to see how people who are on set every day acting out scenes with people playing the characters can view the character of their fellow actors.

My favorite part of this episode of “Assembled,” though, is the filming. It’s easy to expect most of a superhero film to be shot in front of a green screen at Marvel Studios and have the backgrounds added in post-production. But Chloe Zhao was so adamant about shooting on location that it only enhanced the storytelling. The United Kingdom and the Canary Islands served as a set piece to help tell the stories of both ancient civilizations that no longer exist and modern-day civilizations that needed representation. While CGI has advanced so much that many shots now look like practical effects when they are really digital, it’s always nice to see as much practical work in a film as possible.

This docuseries is always a lot of fun. But it’s not really necessary. I like seeing the behind-the-scenes development, but it’s still better suited to the featurettes we saw on DVDs and Blu-Ray rather than its own series. But Disney+ has been lacking for content in the US, so I’m not going to complain about actually getting something to watch. Marvel is clearly the strongest pillar on Disney+ and its content is always solid, even when it’s unnecessary. Once again, this was a solid entry for Marvel.

Ranking: 3.5 stars out of 5

What did you think of “Assembled: The Making of Eternals?”

Jeremy Brown

Jeremy has been a big Disney fan since he was a kid growing up during the Disney Renaissance. One day he hopes to go to every Disney Park in the world.

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