Eternals ending explained: What happened to Sersi?

Eternals was the 26th entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), and it was released on November 5, 2021. Directed by Chloé Zhao, the story was by Kaz Firpo and Ryan Firpo while the screenplay is by Zhao, Ryan, Kaz and Patrick Burleigh. Here's the official synopsis, per Letterboxd:

The Eternals are a team of ancient aliens who have been living on Earth in secret for thousands of years. When an unexpected tragedy forces them out of the shadows, they are forced to reunite against mankind’s most ancient enemy, the Deviants.

Produced by Nate Moore and Kevin Feige, the film ended up grossing $402 million at the box office.

How does Eternals end?

Eternals revolves around the namesake group of superheroes who are immortals. They are aliens who have been secretly living on Earth for thousands of years to protect the planet against the Deviants.

Towards the end of the film, Eternals start to leave Earth. However, Phastos, Sersi, and Kingo eventually decide to stay back on the planet. Kingo wants to be a Bollywood star once again. Phastos plans to reunite with Ben and Jack. Sersi's boyfriend, Dane Whitman, proposes to her, and she continues to work in the museum. Later, the Celestials show up to take Sersi along with Kingo, and Phastos with them. Dane is confused about what happened to his girlfriend. Druig, Makkari, and Thena leave Earth to find other Eternals across the universe.

There are mid-credit and post-credit scenes in the film. In the first one, the three above-mentioned superheroes are inside the Domo ship, wondering about their friends on Earth. Suddenly, Thanos' brother Eros and Pip the Troll show up in order to meet them. The post-credit scene shows Dane looking at an ancient sword inside a casket, which he hopes to use to find Sersi.

Fan theories on Eternals

A screenshot of a Reddit an theory | Image via Reddit

Many fans on Reddit have explored the ending of the film. One user wrote:

"We know that Thanos was a doomsday prophet and raised concerns of over-crowding, which led to the extinction of his people. Well I have a theory — what if Thanos, like Thena, has been suffering from mad-weary and, as an eternal, has lived through the death of several planets? He may not remeber exactly where he got the inspiration from, but his approach to over-population truly is the only way to combat the birth of celestials and it may be that Titan didn't expend all of its resources, but was in fact torn apart by the birth of a celestial."

The user continued:

TLDR: Like Thena, Thanos is suffering from mad weary and the experience of destroying multiple planets under the orders of the Celestials. While he may not be sure exactly why, he is certain that over-population is a bad thing and this is a result of his erased memories of genocide."

Another user refuted the above-mentioned claim and wrote:

"There is neither evidence in the MCU or the comics to support your theory. He is a second gen Eternal and was not directly created by a celestial nor has he lived through any emergences. Joe Russo stated that MCU Thanos is only about 1000 years old, which makes him younger than Thor. The problem and his obsession with over population is easily explainable and understand now that it is revealed that he and everyone else on Titan were Eternals and therefore "immortal"."

What do you think of the film's ending?