Eternals is set after the events of Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame and it mentions Thanos' snap at one point, but after learning about "The Emergence", a question arose: did Thanos know about Tiamut's birth in Infinity War? The first three phases in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, collectively known as the Infinity Saga, had Thanos as the main antagonist and followed his quest to acquire the Infinity Stones and Infinity Gauntlet. Although Thanos got what he wanted, his catastrophic actions were undone in Avengers: Endgame and he and his armies were finally defeated, making way for the MCU to explore new characters, events, and menaces in Phase 4.

The main concept in the MCU's Phase 4 is the multiverse, but Marvel is also taking time to introduce new characters whose stories are separate from the multiverse (at least for now). Among those are the Eternals, who debuted in the movie of the same name directed by Chloé Zhao. The Eternals are an alien race created by the Celestial Arishem and sent to Earth to protect it from the Deviants, their evil counterparts. The team stayed on Earth for centuries and never interfered in human conflicts, which led them to part ways. The Eternals reunited many, many years later as the Deviants returned, their leader Ajak (Salma Hayek) was killed, and an apocalyptic event known as "The Emergence" fast approached.

Through Sersi (Gemma Chan), the new leader of the Eternals, the rest of the team learned the truth about their origin and purpose, as well as what The Emergence was about: the birth of a Celestial, whose seed was planted on Earth, and his literal emergence would cause the destruction of the planet. The Celestial expected to be born from Earth was Tiamut, but given the strong bond that most of the Eternals had created with humanity, they joined forces and stopped Tiamut's birth, thus saving Earth. It's explained in Eternals that the Deviants went rogue and so the Eternals were created and sent to Earth to stop them so humanity could thrive, as the planet needed the necessary energy from humans so Tiamut could emerge. It's also mentioned that Thanos' snap delayed The Emergence, making the audience wonder if Thanos knew about Tiamut's birth.

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Thanos' plans were to get all the Infinity Stones along with the Infinity Gauntlet so he could wipe away half of life in the universe, this in order to bring balance to it. Thanos' desire to "save" the universe by getting rid of half of its population came from seeing his home planet, Titan, collapse due to overpopulation. Thanos got what he wanted in Avengers: Infinity War but half of the universe was brought back in Avengers: Endgame, and as The Emergence needed a certain amount of humans and energy to happen, the event was delayed. Now, it's not explicitly said in Eternals nor in any other MCU movie if Thanos knew about The Emergence in Infinity War or not, but he most likely did. Thanos wanted to preserve life in the universe (with very questionable methods, though), and The Emergence, which meant the destruction of entire planets, went against that. The snap would have become even more important to him as it meant the delay of The Emergence, thus saving planets and lives.

With Thanos now gone thanks to Iron Man's snap in Avengers: Endgame, the MCU is moving forward with new threats and more, but given his connection to the Eternals (more so now that his brother, Eros, has been introduced) and the impact of the snap in this universe, Marvel should address the question of whether Thanos knew about The Emergence or not when he planned the snap and how much he knew about it.

Next: Eternals: Where The Avengers Are During The Emergence

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