Eternals is now on Disney Plus, with audiences who didn’t turn up for its theatrical run due to the mixed reviews and lingering pandemic fears checking it out, and finding a lot to like.
With the movie getting another moment in the spotlight, its stars have begun revealing their takes on key character decisions. One of the more interesting came from Lia McHugh’s Sprite, the frustrated Eternal forever trapped in the body of a child. In an interview with Inverse, she discussed why she sided with Ikaris against the rest of her family:
“Sprite’s motives in the ending were driven by her hurt and wanting to forget. A lot of what she did she would have never done. She wanted Arishem to emerge, she wanted our memories wiped. She wanted to forget her pain because it was so awful and so deep that she just couldn’t bear it anymore. She needed to forget it and forget Ikaris. But Sersi is her sister. She knows her very well. She understands how awfully hard it is for Sprite. I don’t think she blamed her. She found forgiveness for her as much as she did for Ikaris.”
Being stuck as a child forever with an adult brain sounds like a particularly sadistic form of torture, so I’m not surprised Sprite decided to allow Tiamet to emerge and finally fulfill its mission. Even so, it is more than a little selfish to be willing to sacrifice literally everyone in the world because you have an unrequited crush.
Despite her actions, Sprite ended up in a good place. In a Pinocchio-like twist, she was turned into a real girl and can now finally age normally. McHugh went on to tease her future:
“We don’t know that she doesn’t have her powers. That has not been clarified. I don’t even know. Nobody knows. I think about it sometimes. What she could be doing on Earth? I like to think that she’s a trouble child. Maybe she went a little crazy and is spending all of Kingo’s money and is getting into trouble. Maybe he has to parent her a little. That would be funny. If the Eternals showed up they’d be like, “Sprite? What happened to you?”
While it certainly seemed that Sprite’s wish to become human completely stripped her of any cosmic power and turned her into a little girl, we didn’t actually get confirmation that she can’t still make illusions. Even if she can’t, simply being a millennia-old mind inside a normal girl should make her a force to be reckoned with to some degree.
If Eternals 2 ever gets off the ground, here’s hoping we see the characters checking back in with her, to see if being mortal is all it’s cracked up to be.
