Eternals
Marvel Comics never full explored Black Knight ’s past , but Marvel’sEternalsmovie can finally give the classical Avenger a right origin account by tying him to Kumail Nanjiani ’s Kingo . At SDCC 2019 , it was announced thatGame of Thronesstar Kit Harington had landed a key role in the MCU as the Black Knight , who is set to make his MCU debut inEternals .
Specifically , Harington will play the third Black Knight from Marvel Comics , Dane Whitman , who ’s the modern - day incarnation of the sword - wielding hero , and a Greco-Roman phallus of the Avengers . Dane Whitman is an unexpected summation toEternals , as he has only one connection to the ancient race of superhuman immortals , and that ’s his love story with the Eternal , Sersi , in the nineties . Black Knight is require to have a substantial presence , but he ’s also just one character in a star - stud cast of topnotch - powered cosmic beings who have live on Earth for thou of years .
Related : How Thanos Is Connected To The Eternals : Story & Species Explained
Directed by Chloe Zhao , the second film on Marvel ’s Phase 4 slate will see the Eternals ' creators - the Celestials - task them with a mission to defeatthe Deviants , who in the comics are a grotesque , genetic offshoot of humanness . Where Dane Whitman - the film ’s only confirmed human character - check into their foreign mission is unclear , but as it ’s his first MCU film , hearing may get to see how he becomes the Black Knight . If so , the MCU can do what the comics did n’t by plunge deep into his origin storey .
Black Knight’s Origin Story In Marvel Comics Explained
Dane Whitman first come along inAvengers # 47 in 1967 . He was introduced as a physicist who own a castle in England . It was revealed that Dane is the nephew of Iron Man and Hank Pym villainBlack Knight aka Nathan Garrett , an armored warrior who rode a winged buck . Apparently , Nathan was the owner a of a cursed sword called the Ebony Blade , which had been lapse down from contemporaries to generation for centuries . It had its root in the Arthurian geological era when it was wielded byMarvel ’s first Black Knight , Sir Percy of Scandia . Centuries later , his descendant Nathan Garrett bear the chimneypiece of the Black Knight but tarnished the name by being a supervillain and a member of the Masters of Evil .
After descend off his horse in a battle with Iron Man , Nathan was on death ’s doorway . He get going to Dane , gave him the Ebony Blade , and told him all about the Black Knight legacy . He asked Dane to assist him atone for his natural action by using the Black Knight name to be a hero ; Dane agreed , and became Nathan ’s successor . Considering Nathan ’s reputation , the Avengers did n’t promptly accept that the new Black Knight was a Hero of Alexandria , but in time , he was finally offered rank . By the 1980s , he was a full - time member of the squad , which is something viewers may be hoping to see in the MCU in Phase 4 , 5 , or beyond .
What Black Knight’s Comic Origin Is Missing
That ’s howDane Whitman became the Black Knight in Marvel Comics , but there ’s one key detail miss from his storey . What Marvel does n’t fully search is his swordsmanship and where it came from . Dane stand out as a character who can be a superhero with just his sword skills , as he does n’t have world power or a huge arsenal of arm . But where did he earn his expertise with the Ebony Blade ?
It ’s possible that Nathan Garrett trained him in his former years , but even though Nathan was the Black Knight , he mostly used a lancet and never demonstrated himself to be an extraordinary swordsman , or at least not on the level of Dane Whitman . A more potential scenario is that after learn the truth about Nathan , Dane hired well - known sword instructors to learn him . So while Marvel has gone into enceinte item explaining how characters like Daredevil , Black Widow , Hawkeye , and others have acquire their skills , Black Knight ’s origin is left rather ambiguous .
Related : Eternals : Why Marvel change The Team ’s loss leader Is A Good Move
How Marvel’s Eternals Movie Can Improve Black Knight’s Origin
Eternals can do a best occupation of explaining his origin story by showing how the MCU version of the fibre learned how to utilise a blade . Marvel already has the right tool for Dane Whitman to develop those skills : Kingo ( Kumail Nanjiani ) . In the comics , Kingo is an Eternal who makes samurai movies in Japan . In the past , he was a samurai himself , and in advanced multiplication he used his swordsmanship to be a Japanese action star . The MCU isrewriting Kingo ’s report by make him a Bollywood actor . This means that Kingo wo n’t be a samurai , but that does n’t necessarily mean he wo n’t be a fencer . Swords are important in cultures from all the populace , including India ’s .
If Marvel keeps Kingo ’s setting as a steel expert , he would be the ideal instructor for Black Knight . In the comic strip , the human Deviant , Ransak the Reject , became his apprentice and trained under Kingo to instruct the fashion of the samurai , but the flick can easy swap Ransak with Dane . This could even be how Dane gets brought into the story and how he meetsSersi ( Gemma Chan ) . He could be traveling in the fellowship of Kingo when he ’s introduced .
There ’s a reason why a character like Kingo is needed for Black Knight ’s rootage . Dane Whitman is the majuscule swordsman in the Marvel Universe , and for him to arrest this position in the MCU , audiences need to have a reason to believe that he ’s earned it . After all , Black Knight is a type who lay aside the universe gird only with a steel . He does n’t have the physical perfection of Captain America , the armory of Iron Man , or the superpower of Thor , so it ’s important that his skill with the brand is one and only by anyone else . Perhaps the only individual capable of providing Black Knight with the education he would need is an Eternal . As someone who has lived for millennium , it have sense that Kingo would have learned uncounted fighting styles . It ’s laborious to imagine Black Knight rule a teacher best become to being his instructor than a man who has fight down with a steel for chiliad of years .
This may not be the extent of how the MCU will change Dane Whitman . Marvel may also make some allowance to the Black Knight bequest , which is one aspect of the character that was fully fleshed out in the funny books . In Marvel Comics , it was prove long ago that the Ebony Blade was forged by Merlin , and thatDane ’s lineage goes all the elbow room back to Camelot . To intimately tie in him to the Eternals and the movie ’s story , Marvel may make the Ebony Blade an Eternals artefact , and murder the Camelot connexion altogether .
More : Black Widow Theory : Taskmaster Could help oneself go down Up Black Knight
