[This story contains spoilers for Marvel’s Eternals.]
Marvel Studios was as soon as keen on reminding its viewers that “it’s all linked.” That motto has hardly ever appeared as true because it does within the mid-credit sequence from Eternals. The shock second introduces two fan-favorite characters to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and teases an surprising future for these heroes.
The looks of Starfox and Pip the Troll — Harry Types and Patton Oswalt, respectively — on the finish of Chloé Zhao’s first Marvel film could seem stunning to the vast majority of viewers, most of whom wouldn’t have any thought who these explicit characters are, or why they’d present up in an Eternals story. For longtime Marvel followers, nevertheless, it’s probably the primary tease of a bigger story linking a number of franchises contained in the bigger MCU cosmos.
The looks of Starfox — or, as he’s additionally recognized, Eros — is one thing that makes extra sense than it might initially appear. In Marvel’s comedian ebook mythology, Eros is an Everlasting himself, albeit one from a breakaway faction that’s relocated into house following an ideological break from the vast majority of the group. That schism centered across the need to create new Eternals through what’s euphemistically described as “technological and organic means.” One of many new Eternals made by what turned referred to as the Titan Colony was Thanos, who destroyed the colony, killing his dad and mom within the course of. One of many Titan Eternals that didn’t die, nevertheless, was Eros… who, it seems, is Thanos’ brother.
(This backstory is recapped in its most effective type in Marvel’s present Eternals comedian ebook sequence, which additionally makes the argument {that a} resurrected Thanos is as a lot an Everlasting because the characters who debuted within the authentic model of the sequence, a lot to the shock of these Eternals. May this be a touch of issues to return in the way forward for the MCU?)
Within the aftermath of the Titan Colony’s destruction, Eros devoted his life to coping with Thanos. It was solely after Thanos was seemingly defeated — like all good villains, he got here again — that he determined to relocate to Earth, the place he adopted the title Starfox and joined the Avengers for a interval, earlier than ultimately returning to Titan. His main energy as a superhero? Being so charming, no-one might resist him. Abruptly, the Harry Types casting makes extra sense.
Pip the Troll, in the meantime, has a far stranger origin story: a prince of an alien planet, he was remodeled right into a troll after a heavy evening of consuming — no, actually — and decides to commit his life to debauchery. These plans, sadly, have been interrupted by being kidnapped by an intergalactic church, resulting in his ultimately assembly Thanos, who tried to kill him by destroying his thoughts, unaware that he had already escaped contained in the Soul Stone. Like Thanos, he’d later return, solely wholesome, by way of the magic of cosmic story logic and comics.
Thanos would be the main connective tissue between Eros and Pip, however not the one one. Each characters not solely share a creator in Jim Starlin — who additionally created Thanos, Drax, and Gamora, making him probably the most effectively represented Marvel creators on the large display screen outdoors of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby — but in addition a relationship with one other Marvel hero scheduled to make their MCU debut in an upcoming film: Adam Warlock.
Director James Gunn has confirmed that Warlock will seem within the third Guardians of the Galaxy film, performed by Will Poulter. He was teased on the finish of the second Guardians, and has been anticipated by MCU followers for near a decade, because of his conventional function as Thanos’s extra heroic nemesis. (This does increase the query, what’s Adam Warlock going to be doing in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 with out his fixed opposing pressure? Once more, the thought of Thanos being in some way revived raises its unlikely head.)
Whether or not or not the introduction of Starfox and Pip in Eternals suggests a possible Adam Warlock/Guardians of the Galaxy/Eternals storyline within the offing is one thing that can doubtless stay underneath wraps for a while but. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 isn’t due till 2023, in any case, though additional post-credit sequences would possibly provide extra clues earlier than then.
What the post-credit sequence does affirm, although, is that, even when Guardians goes to wrap up with Gunn’s third and assumed ultimate installment in a few years, Marvel nonetheless sees loads of potential in mining the so-called “cosmic” comedian sequence of the Seventies for concepts — which means that the potential of a Seeker 3000 film isn’t solely useless simply but. Nicely, a Disney+ sequence, at the very least.
