Eternals' Sprite Actor Details Cut Harry Styles Eros Alternate Ending
Eternals star Lia McHugh clarifies the Harry Styles scene that was cut from the final film and reveals where it would've fit in. Directed by Chloé Zhao, the MCU's Eternals has been one of the most interesting releases to emerge from the franchise yet. It debuted in November to mixed reviews - a first for the MCU - and a solid box office total for the pandemic era. Eternals then arrived on Disney+ earlier this month and has seen a new wave of appreciation online. Through all this, Marvel has remained mum on what the future holds for the cosmic characters at the center of the film.
If anything is certain, it's that they do have a future in the MCU. Even if Eternals didn't have a cliffhanger ending, its credits contained two scenes setting up future stories and characters. The second involved Kit Harington's Dane Whitman and an unseen Blade (Mahershala Ali), while the first introduced musician Styles to the MCU. He plays Eros, aka Starfox, the god of love and Thanos' brother. Styles only appeared in the one Eternals post-credits scene, but since the movie's release, fans have learned there was another scene he shot involving other characters.
For some time now, it's been unclear as to what Styles' cut scene involved. Now McHugh, who plays eternally young Sprite, has revealed new details about the scene. A behind the scenes image put Styles and McHugh together on set, suggesting Sprite factored into the additional Eros moment. In a recent interview with Inverse, McHugh clarified Styles actually shot an alternate ending that was meant to parallel an earlier scene involving Sprite. She said:
I actually didn't have a scene with him. [His scene] was a scene that was cut. It was parallel to the very first scene of us arriving on Earth. It was an alternate ending that didn't end up working out. We shot it on the same day [as our scene], because it was virtually the same. It was the same shot. They were just switching out characters.
The BTS image, which also featured Richard Madden, showed McHugh and Styles in the Eternals' pre-Earth clothes. McHugh's clarification that the cut Eros scene merely paralleled the film's opening now sheds more light on why Styles was wearing the same costume as everyone else, even if he wasn't featured in the scene. The context for the cut moment is still fuzzy, but it's clear it would've established a deeper link between Eros and the Eternals.
In the finished film, Eros arrives on the Domo to offer his help to the remaining Eternals - Thena, Makkari, and Druig - after the rest of their surviving team is plucked off Earth by Arishem, their creator. It looks like Eros has deep knowledge of the Celestials and their plots, and he's expected to play a big role in the next Eternals movie. Beyond that, little else is known about the character or what lies ahead for him, but from the various behind the scenes stories that have emerged, it's clear a lot of thought went into Eros' appearance. Fans will just have to wait and see what the future holds.
Source: Inverse