Kumail Nanjiani hits back at criticism of openly gay character in Marvel's Eternals

Kumail Nanijani has slammed negative reviews of Marvel's Eternals that cited Brian Tyree Henry's role as the comic book franchise's first openly gay superhero.

The 43-year-old actor, who stars as Kingo in the film, hit back at now-deleted IMDb reviews from fans, which had been posted before the film's release.

The negative comments apparently targeted the decision to change the sexuality of the character Brian's character Phastos to make him openly gay.

"Looks like we're upsetting the right people. Eternals opens (in the U.S.) November 5th," Nanjiani wrote in a since-deleted tweet.

Nanjiani's own character was also altered in the big screen adaptation, transforming the immortal hero from a Japanese samurai to a Bollywood movie star.

Marvel President Kevin Feige confirmed the character would be openly gay in 2019.

"He's married, he's got a family and that is just part of who he is," the movie impresario told Good Morning America.

Last year, actor Haaz Sleiman revealed the film will also feature the studio's first same-sex onscreen kiss between him and Henry, who are married in the film.

"For me, it's very important to show how loving and beautiful a queer family can be," Sleiman told NewNowNext. "Brian Tyree Henry is such a tremendous actor and brought so much beauty into this part, and at one point I saw a child in his eyes, and I think it's important for the world to be reminded that we in the queer community were all children at one point."

Eternals also stars Angelina Jolie, Salma Hayek, Kit Harington, Gemma Chan, Richard Madden, Lia McHugh, Lauren Ridloff, Barry Keoghan and Ma Dong-seok.