Eternals proves that Thanos (almost) did nothing wrong – and accidentally saved Earth

If you’d believe a certain Reddit page, Thanos did nothing wrong. Sure, the Mad Titan may have snapped away half of all life in the universe, but that’s small potatoes while looking at the bigger picture… right?

Surprisingly, Eternals has a roundabout way of explaining how Thanos nearly inadvertently saved Earth. Stick with us here – and spoilers for Eternals follow.

While sitting with Ikaris (Richard Madden) in South Dakota, Ajak (Salma Hayek) explains that the process of bringing all life back to Earth post-snap in Avengers: Endgame has made the planet hit the point of no return. Namely, the set number of humans needed for the Celestial residing inside the planet to emerge has been met. The creatively named Emergence has started, all thanks to Iron Man.

Sure, it’s pretty silly stuff when you stop and think about it – how is the Celestial keeping count? – but the fact remains: had Thanos’ snap not been reversed by Iron Man, the world would never have been on the brink of total annihilation.

Of course, the Eternals (eventually) save the day, with a little help from the Uni-Mind and Sersi’s handy new powers, and the MCU can rest a little easier. But those Thanos truthers out here will surely grab on to this scrap of evidence as proof that the villain's finely-balanced plan was all in service of some greater good.

For more from our Eternals coverage, check out our comprehensive breakdown of both the Eternals ending and Eternals post-credits scenes. We also spoke to Ikaris actor Richard Madden about the MCU’s first sex scene.