Marvel’s Eternals Star Kumail Nanjiani Went To Therapy After Bad Reviews

Kumail Nanjiani has revealed he began therapy after “reading every review” for the poorly received 2021 Marvel movie Eternals, in which he played Kingo.

Speaking to Michael Rosenbaum (via Variety), Nanjiani said what made things really difficult for him was that he was under the impression Marvel thought the film would get great reviews. Reviews for Eternals did not, however, turn out to be very good in aggregate. The movie is among the lowest-rated MCU films ever.

Also in the interview, Nanjiani said the atmosphere surrounding Eternals felt “heightened” due in part to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I think there was some weird soup in the atmosphere for why that movie got slammed so much, and I think not much of it has to do with the actual quality of the movie,” he said. “It was really hard, and that was when I thought it was unfair to me and unfair to [my wife] Emily, and I can’t approach my work this way anymore. Some shit has to change, so I started counseling. I still talk to my therapist about that.”

Nanjiani said his wife, Emily Gordon, told him that he has “trauma” from the reaction to Eternals. Gordon is a former therapist. This would be Nanjiani’s one and only performance in a Marvel movie.

Eternals earned more than $400 million worldwide at the box office and was the No. 11 highest-grossing movie globally of that year. In addition to Nanjiani, the film starred Angelina Jolie, Richard Madden, Kit Harington, Gemma Chan, and Salma Hayek. It was directed by Oscar-winner Chloe Zhao.