Chloé Zhao to direct movie about Shakespeare’s son, still no word on Eternals 2

Chloé Zhao has been pretty quiet since making Eternals for Marvel Studios—especially considering that the movie came out shortly after she won Best Picture and Best Director for Nomadland—but that might be changing soon. Deadline says that she’s going to direct an adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s best-selling historical fiction book Hamnet for Amblin Partners (and a string of other production companies that are not as famous as Amblin, no offense to them).

The original book is about a woman named Agnes, wife of an up-and-coming playwright/poet named William Shakespeare, who must reckon with the tragic death of her young son (the eponymous Hamnet). This comes from Variety, which says the book follows “the emotional, familial, and artistic consequences of that loss, bringing to life a human and heart-stopping story as they backdrop to the creation of Shakespeare’s most famous play, Hamlet.” No other specific details about the adaptation have been announced, and Deadline notes that it’s “still unknown” if this will be her next project or just something she’s putting her name on.

If it’s the latter, it joins a list of at least two other interesting prospects for Zhao (who apparently took a conscious filmmaking break after working with Marvel). The more exciting one is her mysterious sci-fi/Western version of Dracula, which sounds sick as hell and was first teased before even Nomadland had come out. The other possibility is a sequel to Eternals, which nobody has really acknowledged one way or the other. It would be beyond weird for Marvel if none of those characters ever showed up again, but a Hollywood Reporter story says that Zhao “declined to comment” when asked about doing another Eternals.

That seems like a “no,” but again, Marvel doesn’t really scrap plans.