Richard Madden REVEALS he found it 'interesting' to play Eternals' Ikaris who's opposite of his other roles

During Eternals' virtual global press conference, Richard Madden shed light on how his character Ikaris is "constantly wrestling" between "love" and "duty."

By Karishma Shetty

Updated on Oct 26, 2021 | 08:23 PM IST | 3.1M

Richard Madden Eternals Ikaris Interesting

Richard Madden shared how his Eternals character Ikaris is trying to "bury that love because it gets in the way of his duty."

Eternals, MCU Phase 4's latest outing, marks the entry of many established Hollywood actors like Angelina Jolie, Salma Hayek, Richard Madden, Gemma Chan, Kit Harington and more, into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In particular, the Chloé Zhao directorial will see Richard playing the role of Ikaris, the most powerful Eternal, who is also caught in the middle of loyalty and love.

During Eternals' virtual global press conference, which Pinkvilla attended and which saw the cast, Chloé and Kevin Feige, President of Marvel Studios in attendance, Ikaris' character traits were brought up in comparison to other warrior roles played by Madden, like Robb Stark in Game of Thrones, where duty and honour was a major key aspect. In Ikaris' case, he's not comfortable with either aspect and Richard was asked how interesting it was for him to play a character that's going through a lot of internal conflict throughout Eternals.

"I really loved it. I'm kind of used to playing lovers often. And to play someone who's such a soldier, but is completely driven by love. All his decisions are driven by love and it's actually him that's wrestling with that. I'm used to characters who are very focused on their love and that comes out. And with Ikaris, it's the opposite of that," Madden began.

"He's trying to bury that love because it gets in the way of his duty and is constantly wrestling the two. And what made it really interesting for me, to pull out that relationship with all the characters from Sprite to Sersi and work out what this relationship is when you're trying to stick to duty, but your feelings get in the way. It's this eternal soldier wrestling that," the Citadel star concluded. For the unversed, Sersi is Ikaris' love interest in Eternals.