Geek Exclusive: Kit Harington Says Black Knight Could Appear Elsewhere In The MCU

The King of the North is crossing over to a brand new universe and this time, he’s giving up his fur coat and sword for regular clothes and… an iPhone? Not that you would need an introduction, but playing Dane Whitman in Marvel Studios’ Eternals is Game of Thrones lead star Kit Harington. 

And before you start drawing conclusions, know this – the 34-year-old English actor is not playing another knight with a sword in his first outing in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).

At least, not yet.

Having played Jon Snow for 8 long years, Harington is no stranger to major franchises that have become a household name to fans and non-fans all over the world. Aside from his stint as The White Wolf in the HBO TV series, the English actor also frequently performs on theatre stages, most recently as Faustus in Doctor Faustus and Donmar Warehouse in Henry V. 

And if you thought the years of TV and theatre experience under his belt would better prepare him to be calm when new opportunities – such as Marvel – come knocking on his door, you thought wrong. 

“When you get a call from Marvel, you have to temper your initial excitement because every part of your brain is firing off, going ‘Say yes, yes, yes, yes’ and then you go ‘Wait a minute, who am I playing?’” shared an excited Harington in an exclusive interview with Geek Culture. 

“I was lucky in that it was a conversation and it was a collaboration from the get go, initially with Nate [Moore] and then with Chloe [Zhao], and it was a chat about who the character was and who would be in this and based on that information, you don’t necessarily get a full idea of a script at first, but you get an idea of the character and where it could go.” 

What happens after getting an idea of the character then? 

“Well, then I went Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes!” laughed Harington. 

And that character is fellow historian Dane Whitman in the new superhero film by director Zhao, who is also the human love interest to the immortal Eternal, Sersi (Gemma Chan).

But there’s more, because there always is. In the comics, Dane is the nephew of the villainous Nathan Garrett, who is also known as the Black Knight. The Whitman clan is in posession of the cursed sword, Ebony Blade, which Dane later takes hold of, and promises to restore the honour of the Black Knight legacy. 

With rich history to the character, who later on becomes an Avenger himself, Dane is an unexplored little gem from the Marvel Comics and will be debuting alongside other gems (yes, the Eternals). Although, it may take a long while until fans will see him don the armour. 

In the movie (mild spoilers ahead), Dane’s legacy is referenced twice. Alongside playing Sersi’s partner, for the most part, Dane is seen attempting to understand his girlfriend and her family history. He plays a rather small role compared to the 10 other characters, but Harington is certain that there is more to Dane than meets the eye. 

“I wasn’t always a fan of the character, I had to look him up but once I saw what his thing was, and where it could go, I was like ‘That’s got a lot in it that could be interesting to mine’,” confessed Harington. 

As Sersi and the rest of the Eternals, made up of many other characters such as Ajak (Salma Hayek), Ikaris (Richard Madden), Gilgamesh (Don Lee), Thena (Angelina Jolie) and more, the movie implies that Dane had in fact embarked on his own journey and possibly found out something groundbreaking about his past and about his family. 

“When Sersi and Dane were talking on the phone in the Amazon and Sersi is saying ‘Go visit your uncle, you always wanted to make amends’, Dane is like ‘My uncle? No!’ The next few days when the whirlwind in our movie, on the other side of the world, Dane is thinking ‘Should I go see my uncle? Maybe I should’ and then he did,” says Zhao in the same exclusive interview with Geek Culture. 

“So in the end when you see him and Sersi together when he says, ‘My family is complicated’, I think he’s found out something quite unique about his past.” 

If you want to find out more about the movie’s reference to the Ebony Blade and Dane Whitman’s character, read our spoilers here. 

Chiming in, Harington adds: “What’s interesting about all MCU movies, especially with the Avengers, is this idea of plot going on in the background. So you’re watching one movie, but you can link back to plot that happens in that movie in another movie – and that’s really clever. There’s an element of that Chloe is referring to in this that could go somewhere.” 

Speaking of clever elements, many critics have described Eternals to feature plenty of firsts for the MCU. The first openly gay superhero, the first deaf superhero and many other things. But for Game of Thrones fans, not only does Eternals have a beautiful score composed by Ramin Djawadi, it also sees Harington reunite with co-star Madden. 

The last time fans saw Harington and Madden on screen together as brothers of the Stark family was in season 3 of Game of Thrones in 2013. This time, in Eternals, Madden plays Ikaris – one of the coolest Eternals to exist, and also Sersi’s ex-boyfriend. Although the two characters are caught in an awkward love triangle, there’s nothing Harington loved more than reuniting with the Scottish actor once more. 

“You know what, it’s never fun sharing the screen with Richard Madden because he’s slightly taller than me, he’s got a much better jawline and you know, he has charisma coming literally in this movie out of his eyes,” joked Harington. “He’s a friend and I love working with him and I hope we get a longer time on screen next time.” 

Catch Kit Harington as Dane Whitman in Marvel Studios’ Eternals when it releases in cinema on 4 November 2021.