Pop star Harry Styles has officially joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe with his debut as Eros in Eternals. Because he only appeared in a post-credit scene, we’re just seeing the start of what’s to come with the character in the MCU. The casting has generated a lot of discussion with fans when Styles first showed up as they speculate over when Eros might pop up again elsewhere.
Speaking about Eros in a new interview with Empire, Chloé Zhao reveals that she originally wanted him to appear earlier in the film. Seeing his arrival has been a long time coming for Zhao as she had personally been lobbying for it with Marvel boss Kevin Feige. She had already spent so much time thinking about storyline possibilities for Eros and suggests there’s a lot of territory to explore with him as the brother of Thanos, master of the Blip.
“Long story short, with that depressing ending, at some point he was going to be one of the Eternals on that ship. And that didn’t quite work out. But I had been wanting to bring Eros into the MCU. So I kept mentioning it to Kevin [Feige] at every chance I had in the hallway, because I love the idea of Eros being another Eternal, another Ajak. He’s an Eternal, and he was stationed on Titan – 10 of them were, just like the 10 Eternals on Earth, assuming Titan is also a host planet at some point. Now, if you think about that, what influence could Eros have had on the inhabitants of Titan, the way Ajak has influenced people on Earth? And how that has affected Thanos?”
Zhao explains how in the comic books, you can see the “beautiful, heartbreaking influence” Eros has had on his brother. The director notes she loves Thanos as a character because she has to use her imagination to explain why the villain thinks the way he does. It also has Zhao wondering how much Eros knows of his brother’s deeds and what Thanos is thinking, and she’s come up with her own little backstory for the MCU version of the character. Zhao also notes how Eros had to be Harry Styles, otherwise, she wasn’t interested in using him at all.
“For me, the backstory of Eros is that he deserted, he said, ‘I’m not doing this anymore.’ So he somehow got that sphere, which you saw in his hand, and he ran off and made Pip the troll. They’re like Han Solo and Chewie. Arishem’s been looking for him, and he’s just been a space outlaw. That’s the character I had in my mind. But I never said once to Kevin, “Here’s the character. Let’s find an actor.” For me, it was a package deal. It’s got to be Harry. That’s how I pitched it to Kevin.”
It’s unclear when Harry Styles will pop back up as Eros in the MCU, as Marvel likes to keep as many of these things as secret as they can. Because of the interest in his casting, it seems likely we’ll see him again sooner rather than later. Until then, you can check out Eternals when it starts streaming on Disney+ on Jan. 12, 2022.
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