Given that Marvel Studios released an official character poster with his face taking up roughly 90% of the image, we can safely assume that nobody’s trying to keep Harry Styles’ involvement in Eternals a secret anymore, which will be a shame for those who still haven’t seen it yet.
Of course, the former One Direction member’s surprise cameo was ruined from the second the world premiere ended, and things got so bad that Disney’s head of marketing was forced to urge fans on Twitter not to ruin the surprise heading into Eternals‘ opening weekend.
Styles as Eros, brother of Thanos, would have sounded absurd in the immediate aftermath of Avengers: Endgame, but he’s set to play a substantial role in the continued cosmic expansion of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Speaking to The Direct, Eternals writer Ryan Firpo explained why Starfox wasn’t introduced sooner.
“We eventually decided that we really wanted to concentrate on Sersi and Ikaris’ love story, and we just thought in the broader group dynamics, if there’s Ikaris, there can’t really be Eros too, because it feels like they’re just kinda stepping on each other’s toes. But we knew he was a great character who could potentially be our portal into the bigger world; bigger community of Eternals that lives out in the Cosmos. So eventually, we realized that he’s the perfect coda character to introduce, especially because he has that connection to Thanos as well. So I would say that he was never involved in the main story, but always from very early on, there was the idea of introducing him in the post-credits.”
Director Chloe Zhao pitched Styles very early on in the development process, so he was never planned to be one of the main characters in Eternals. However, should the intergalactic epic get the sequel fans are crossing their fingers for, then we can expect the singer-turned-actor to become a more permanent member of the roster, unless of course he shows up before then to embark on a completely different arc.
