Angelina Jolie is a talented actress, who made her mark in the world of cinema with her beauty, versatile acting skills, and excellent stunts. The actress has been a part of many blockbuster projects from all different genres and in 2021 she joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Thena, one of the Eternals.

Angelina Jolie

Eternals, directed by Chloe Zhao, focuses on a special race of immortals known as the Eternals, who protect the Earth from the celestial beings known as the Deviants. The movie, though not a major hit compared to many Marvel movies, surely introduced some new characters to the MCU and fans wonder how their story will proceed. One of them is Thena, but the actress does not want to return in a solo.

Angelina Jolie doesn’t want a solo Thena movie

Eternals, though not a blockbuster, did introduce Marvel fans with some interesting characters. The movie is set thousands of years after the Eternals separate and decide to go on their own journeys among humans. After they reunited, we got a glimpse of what each character had been up to, but not every character was given enough screen time.

Angelina Jolie as Thena

One character the fans were fascinated by was Thena, played by Angelina Jolie. Thena was the first to discover the evil secrets of the Celestials because of some glitch in the process of wiping her memory, known as the Mahd Wy’ry. So, to know about her journey of the thousands of years she was away from the others (except Gilgamish), and how she learned to control the “defect” is something that fans are curious about, and of course, they want to see more of Jolie as Thena.

But she is not up for a solo movie, and would only return with the whole team. She shared in an interview with CinePop (via Collider):

“I loved being part of the family, so I have no desire to separate from the family. But I would be happy to play her again and explore even more deeply the struggles that she has. I think it’s fun thinking of where they’ve been over the years. We’ve got thousands of years worth of material. We can take her anywhere. I think that’s fun and I like the idea that we can pop up somewhere, maybe in other Marvel movies.”
Though the Maleficent actress is still open to returning to the role, she wants to do it in a sequel to the Eternals, where the others of the cast, or whatever members are left are a part of.

Angelina Jolie rejected a superhero role before Eternals

 

Angelina Jolie on Thena

In a 2021 interview with the Empire Magazine, the actress shared that before she was offered the role of Thena, she rejected a superhero role. Though she did not reveal the name of the character, she did share her reason for avoiding the role. She shared,

“I don’t usually lean towards superhero or sci-fi films. It’s not usually what I’m looking to do. It felt like something else was happening in this film, though. It was very character-driven.”
Jolie even stated that her reason for playing Thena was that her character wasn’t a usual superhero, but it was more character-driven and not just mindless action.