Eternals: 10 Biggest Changes From The Comics
6. The Eternals Can't Even Think About Defying The Celestials
When Neil Gaiman rebooted The Eternals in 2006, he revealed some...disturbing details about The Eternals' relationship to their creators.
The Celestials are an arrogant sort, and so don't even like the idea that one of their children MIGHT be defying them, so whenever an Eternal rebels against their creators, or they question the ultimate goal of the mission, or even if they just feel like it, they can just turn them off like robots with a thought.
This definitely would have made the movie significantly shorter than it was, so I can understand why Zhao decided to cut back on just how complete the Celestials' control over their creations is. Gaiman - after dropping this bomb of a twist - had to bend his story into funny balloon animal shapes in order to figure out how his heroes can proceed when their enemies can turn them off just by thinking about it.
He ultimately pulled it off, but cutting that control back just a bit has more upsides than down in terms of a continuous narrative.