Where Chloé Zhao filmed Marvel’s Eternals: the locations that stood in for the Amazon rainforest, Alaska and ancient Babylon

Choosing not to use a green screen in a studio, director Chloé Zhao filmed in London and the Canary Islands to depict ancient and modern sites

Woodland west of London stood in for Alaska, and good use was made of the black-sand beaches and volcano craters of Fuerteventura and Lanzarote islands

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Gemma Chan (left) and director Chloé Zhao in the Canary Islands. Photo: Marvel Studios/Sophie Mutevelian

Published: 4:15am, 1 Nov 2021Updated: 1:35pm, 1 Nov 2021

Movies made by Marvel Studios tend to be filmed against blue or green screens, and involve a lot of special effects rather than real-life destinations, but that’s changed with its latest blockbuster, Eternals.

“Director Chloé Zhao employs a naturalistic style of location-based filmmaking, so she wanted the filming to take place at practical locations, as much as was feasibly possible,” a Marvel Studios spokesperson says.

Eternals centres on a group of otherworldly superheroes, the cast led by Gemma Chan (who starred in Crazy Rich Asians and whose parents are from Hong Kong) and including Richard Madden, Angelina Jolie, Salma Hayek, Kumail Nanjiani and Korean actor Don Lee, also known as Ma Dong-seok.

The story flits between the past and present, covering the group’s backstory and visiting each character in their now disparate homes across the world as they live among mortals.

The Corralejo sand dunes on Fuerteventura, Canary Islands, Spain, where scenes in Eternals were shot. Photo: Getty Images

Chan’s character, Sersi, travels between the modern-day locations attempting to get the gang back together in the face of a threat from an old enemy, The Deviants.

Where Chloé Zhao filmed Marvel’s Eternals: the locations that stood in for the Amazon rainforest, Alaska and ancient Babylon

Choosing not to use a green screen in a studio, director Chloé Zhao filmed in London and the Canary Islands to depict ancient and modern sites Woodland west of London stood in for Alaska, and good use was made of the black-sand beaches and volcano craters of Fuerteventura and Lanzarote islands

Choosing not to use a green screen in a studio, director Chloé Zhao filmed in London and the Canary Islands to depict ancient and modern sites

Woodland west of London stood in for Alaska, and good use was made of the black-sand beaches and volcano craters of Fuerteventura and Lanzarote islands