Teasing fans, Marvel just released a short trailer for its highly anticipated new movie, “Eternals” and it stars Syrian refugee-turned-actor, Zain Al Rafeea, who joins an A-list cast of the likes of Angelina Jolie, Salma Hayek and Richard Madden.
Rafeea was first seen on the big screen when he starred in Lebanese filmmaker, Nadine Labaki’s noteworthy film, “Capernaum,” and is now making waves in Hollywood. He was seen in the new Marvel teaser for all but a couple of seconds.
“Eternals” is directed by Chloe Zhao and is about an alien race that cannot be defeated.
Zain Al Rafeea all grown up now and in the MCU
— Anne(@AnneIndiaKi) May 24, 2021
So amazing #Eternals pic.twitter.com/d5EoqhY3Jl
The trailer for the forthcoming film doesn’t really hint too much at the storyline, but it comes across as though the 16-year-old Syrian actor will play the role of a villager who encounters the Eternals when they land on Earth.
Zain Al Rafeea was rumored to be joining the cast of the movie in 2019 when Salma Hayek took to Instagram to post an image of herself with him and co-star Lia Mchugh, with the caption, “Hanging with the Eternals’ youth.”
“Lebanese filmmaker Nadine Labaki actually made Cannes Film Festival history” https://t.co/4kZJ2b62nT
— F-Rating / F-Rated (@F__Rating) May 29, 2018
Stardom really took off for Rafeea following his work with Nadine Labaki, who had introduced the young Syrian actor to her Hollywood connections that eventually landed him a role in a big budget film. He had also revealed in an interview that he was welcomed and embraced by his co-stars, and Hayek, who plays the leader of the Eternals, Ajak, gifted him an iPad and iPhone and hung out with him.
For Zain’s role, his character joins the Eternals as a human who can speak a unique 7000-year-old language. The film will be released in November 2021.
