The latest addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe is about to arrive on the big screen, but you might be wondering who the villain is. Once you know his name is Kro, you’re bound to want to know why he’s such a big bad baddie and what his deal is with the Eternals – Thena in particular – so here’s the low-down on the character’s back story from the comics, how it might be realised in the film, as well as who plays his voice.
Obviously, there are going to be some specifics that could hint at how the plot is going to go down, so if you want to wait until after you’ve seen the film to find out more then now’s your chance to beat a retreat. The film had a release date of the 5th November, so now’s your chance to wait it out if you want to.
AdvertisementFor everyone else, buckle up for the origins and history of the villain Kro, along with his Deviant masses and their war with the Eternals. If you’ve already seen any of the trailers then you probably know a little bit about it all, but this will fill in any gaps you might have and questions about who’s at the heart of the foul plot that finally gets Thena, Cersi and the rest of the 12 heroes in the fight after such a lengthy period of inactivity.
History of the Deviants and Eternals
The general story is that a group of super-powered cosmic beings called the Celestials created both the Deviants and the Eternals. Where the latter are strong and love the people of earth, the Deviants are more monstrous in their abilities and believe that the earth is their dominion for destruction.
AdvertisementIn the MCU, they were clearly locked away somehow because the Eternals have been able to live in peace and harmony among humans for thousands of years without needing to protect the earth from their tyranny. However, when Thanos’ blip was reversed by Iron Man in Avengers Endgame, that energy triggered the emergence of the Deviants to begin, which is where we pick things up in the film.
All Deviants are unique with their own mutational ability, so some are more powerful than others, and some have very specific traits that might work well against one Eternal, but not the others. That’s why there are 12 Eternals each with their own unique abilities too, so that they can work together to bring down their enemy.
AdvertisementThey’re a warlike race and revel in destruction with little in the way of love or compassion, although there are some minor contradictions to this with Kro being the most well known. We’ll cover this in the final section below, but overall they’re pretty bad to the core, want to destroy the Eternals, inflict revenge against certain Celestials and wipe out all sentient life.
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Who is Kro?
Kro, or Warlord Kro, is one of the leaders of the Deviants and a major super villain for the Eternals. In the comics, he was a warrior general that took power over his race from the previous ruler, Brother Tode. However, there doesn’t appear to be any kind of power struggle between the Deviants in any of the trailers, so it looks like this overthrow is either being passed over or will have already taken place eons ago. Alternatively, it could be saved for a sequel, but we’ll find out for sure with the release of the film.
As is the case for the rest of the deviants, Kro reappears on earth as a result of the emergence and it would appear he’s de-facto leader in the fight against the Eternals. His mutation has given him the ability to change form, which includes rapid healing at the cellular level and ultimately immortality.
He’s also a superhuman, so he’s faster and stronger than the average bear. He’s essentially the closest thing to an Eternal as the Deviants have ever been, and it’s going to be interesting to see how far the MCU push this when the release date comes around.
Why does he seem to focus on Thena
You can see in the trailer below, that the majority of Kro’s interactions with the Eternals is with Thena, who is played by Angelina Jolie. As mentioned above, only read on if you don’t mind finding out a little more about their history from the comic books.
In the Marvel comics, Thena and Kro were, for some reason that seems hard to explain looking at the two of them, former lovers. Obviously, things have gone cold by the time the film starts, but this is the main reason that he spends so much of his efforts directed at Thena.
AdvertisementIt’s either a classic case of beauty and the beast, or he used his shape shifting abilities when he was hitting on her back in the day. In the comics, they even had a couple of kids and with thousands of years of history between them it’s easy to see that this is going to be a big part of the conflict when the film comes out.
You can check out our movie news section to see other big releases that are on the way, or check out the Marvel website to see more on the film at https://www.marvel.com/movies/the-eternals.
Eternals trailer
If you’re not too sure what Kro looks like, you can see him in the final trailer above at 02:11 where he says, “You can’t save any of them”, before giving Thena an unappreciated cheek stroke at 02:20. He sounds pretty powerful with a fairly deep voice and monotonous tone.
Who plays the voice of Kro
To begin with, we weren’t too sure who plays the voice of Kro, but the arrival of the Eternals release date we’re a little wiser than before. When we first listened to the voice it sounded a bit like James Spader who played the villain in Avengers: Age of Ultron. However, as it turns out, it’s none other than Bill Skarsgård of Pennywise fame.
He played the demonic clown in both chapters of the modern day adaptation of It, but if you’re looking for something that doesn’t involve huge amounts of makeup or CGI wizardry, he was also in Villains, Deadpool 2, and Atomic Blonde. His performance continues his bad-guy role choice, but in all fairness he’s got a fairly varied filmography. It’s just he gets much more attention for the baddies.
