Actor-comedian Kumail Nanjiani had his Marvel Cinematic Universe debut in Eternals as Kingo, an Eternal who has spent the last 100 years or so as a Bollywood star. No matter what you think of the film, his character is undoubtedly one most people found entertaining.
It turns out, however, that the role wasn’t originally going to be Nanjiani’s entrance into the MCU.
In a recent interview, Eternals writer Kaz Firpo said that they couldn’t initially cast Nanjiani as Kingo because the actor was written into James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 script. From Firpo’s recollection, it was only when Vol. 3 got delayed that Nanjiani became available for Kingo.
On Twitter, Gunn confirmed that he had written a part for Nanjiani in Vol. 3, but had a different recollection of how things went down. According to Gunn, he had simply written a cameo for Nanjiani, who is a friend of his. When Marvel Chief Creative Officer Kevin Feige gave him a call about the Eternals opportunity, however, Gunn readily agreed for Nanjiani to take on Kingo instead.
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From my POV I had written a cameo for my friend @kumailn in #GotGVol3. When Kevin Feige called me & said they had a primary role for Kumail in #Eternals I said of course I’d rather see him do that then my bit. I don’t remember it having anything to do with the schedule change. https://t.co/R5f8ZHetRN
— James Gunn (@JamesGunn) November 9, 2021
In another tweet, Gunn said that Nanjiani’s Vol. 3 role wasn’t even that big of a part, which likely made the decision even easier. “It was a functional character with a few lines, not based on any established Marvel comics character,” Gunn wrote. “It was mostly a way for me to hang out with my friend for a couple days on set! It would never in a million years be a role to keep him from doing something sizable.”
You can now see Nanjiani playing Eternals’ Kingo in a theater near you.
