We’ve sort of been through this before, but only time will tell whether Marvel gives the people what they want this time. When The Eternals debuts in November 2020 (as Marvel’s second “phase 4” film), it will bring the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s first deaf hero, Makkari, played by deaf actor Lauren Ridloff, as revealed at San Diego Comic-Con 2019. With that in mind, a fan has launched a petition asking the studio to put captions on the movie by default to increase accessibility.
That’s basically the same thing that happened with Marvel and Netflix’s Daredevil TV series way back when. The show debuted without the descriptive audio that helps the visually impaired experience the story, which Netflix was completely lacking at the time. As it turned out, the feature was already in the works, and it was added to Daredevil and other Netflix shows in short order—just days after the series premiere.