The voice at the end of Eternals is a big MCU surprise

For much of its runtime, Eternals, the latest film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, is off in its own cosmic corner, doing things that don’t (yet) tie in to the grand MCU plan post-Thanos. It’s a nice, reasonably self-contained film that stands on its own quite well. Its post and mid-credits scenes, however, go from zero to 60, introducing a handful of characters that could tie into future films in really exciting ways.

One of those introductions, however, is purely aural — a voice that sounds awfully familiar, but unless you can place it, Eternals isn’t going to tell you.

[Ed. note: This post contains spoilers for Eternals.]

The voice is heard at the very end of Kit Harington’s post-credits scene. In the film, Harington plays Dane Whitman, the mostly-unremarkable human boyfriend to Sersi (Gemma Chan), who is an Eternal posing as a normal teacher. Whitman, however, has a family history that the film hints at. His post-credits scene shows him on the cusp of embracing it, and becoming the Black Knight, one of Marvel’s more obscure characters.

Before he does, however, a voice cautions him, saying “Sure you’re ready for that, Mr. Whitman?”

According to a report from Fandom, director Chloé Zhao stated that the voice taunting Whitman belongs to none other Mahershala Ali. That is, Blade the Vampire Hunter — one of the first Marvel characters to grace the big screen, soon to be rebooted in the MCU with Oscar-winner Mahershala Ali in the role.

Even if we don’t see him, it’s a pretty cool nod: two Marvel sword boys for the price of one.