Chloé Zhao Explains How Ikaris Differs From Superman

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Ever since MCU’s 26th movie Eternals was released in theaters, one question was asked a lot among the fans — Is Ikaris actually Marvel’s rip-off of DC’s Superman. I mean, look at him, he can fly, he’s got super-strength, and he can shoot laser beams out of his eyes. When we also add the fact that they’re both pretty handsome, one would think that the only difference is that Ikaris isn’t wearing a cape.

Superman was played by numerous actors on both the small and the big screen during the long history of the character. On the other hand, Game of Thrones star Richard Madden debuted as the first-ever live-action Ikaris in Chloé Zhao’s MCU movie Eternals. The movie even had the reference to Superman himself, in which Ikaris made it clear that he’s not wearing a cape. But, is that really the only difference? Director Chloé Zhao now clarified that:

“We wanted to make sure that we separated Ikaris from Superman as much as possible. Superman has heat vision while [Ikaris] has more of an energy blast. So, in creating the sound for [Ikaris]’ eye beams, [sound designer] Addison [Teague] put more [emphasis] on the power, the sound of power, impact, and pressure so that it has a very unique sound.” — Chloé Zhao

RELATED:

Is Ikaris Really Dead At The End Of Eternals (And Can He Come Back)?

Eternals was released last September and it received mixed reviews from critics and the audience. The movie grossed $402 million worldwide. The star-studded cast includes Gemma Chan, Richard Madden, Kumail Nanjiani, Lia McHugh, Brian Tyree Henry, Lauren Ridloff, Barry Keoghan, Don Lee, Harish Patel, Kit Harington, Salma Hayek, and Angelina Jolie. The end of the movie confirmed the Eternals will return, but it didn’t specify which ones and when (or how) could we see Ikaris shooting his laser beams again.

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Lukas Abramovich is a freelance writer and photo and video editor based in Croatia. He's also a web designer and holds a Master’s degree in general Computer Science from the Faculty of Informatics based in Pula, Croatia. Since 2018, Lukas has worked on several portals writing about movies, TV shows, and video games. He's currently writing articles for two of them: Fiction Horizon and Comic Basics. He also has a YouTube channel in his native language, and the content there is mostly reviewing popular movies and TV shows. Lukas also has an Instagram page where he once used to post fan-made posters he made, which is something he would like to continue working on, as photo and video editing are also some of his passions. Lukas is a big movie lover who is okay with watching any kind of movie. His favorite movie is Michael Curtiz's Casablanca, but he's a loyal follower of Marvel and DC movies, as well as several other blockbuster franchises he's been following for years; Star Wars, Fast & Furious, Mission: Impossible, and James Cameron's Avatar are only some of them. His favorite director is Christopher Nolan, with Quentin Tarantino and Denis Villeneuve as honorable mentions. Lukas is also a big fan of four fantasy multimedia franchises; The Wizarding World, A Song of Ice and Fire, The Witcher, and The Lord of the Rings. He calls them "the four rulers of the fantasy genre." He loves to write about anything spawned from those franchises (books, games, movies...), as well as anything branded with the Marvel or DC logo. Video games and their adaptations are also something he follows faithfully since he's a big fan of story-driven single-player games like Assassin's Creed, The Last of Us, Uncharted, etc. His favorite video game ever is Red Dead Redemption 2.