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Don't Worry, Eternals 2 Can Still Work Without Harry Styles' Starfox
The future of the Eternals in the Marvel Cinematic Universe continues to be a mystery as Eternals 2 hasn’t been confirmed and Harry Styles has no plans of acting again in the near future – but Eternals 2 can still work without Harry Styles reprising his role as Eros/Starfox. With the original Avengers team no longer active after the events of Avengers: Endgame, the MCU has already introduced a new team of superheroes in Chloé Zhao’s Eternals, who turned out to be this universe’s oldest team.
The Eternals are a group of synthetic beings created by the Celestial Arishem the Judge, who sent them to Earth centuries ago to protect it from the Deviants, their evil counterparts. After the Deviants were defeated, the Eternals stayed on Earth and helped humanity evolve, but the team eventually parted ways after many disagreements and conflicts between them. The Eternals reunited many decades later after the death of their leader, Ajak (Salma Hayek), the return of the Deviants, and the fast approach of an apocalyptic event called “The Emergence”, which was the birth of a new Celestial from the center of Earth. By the end of Eternals, the team was divided into two, with those who stayed on Earth being abducted by Arishem in order to judge their actions, and the ones who left in the Domo being intercepted by Eros/Starfox, a fellow Eternal.
Starfox is not only an Eternal but also Thanos’ brother, which makes him a potentially big presence in the upcoming phases of the MCU, but Starfox’s future is now as unclear as that of the rest of the Eternals. Speaking to Rolling Stone in August 2022, Harry Styles revealed he’s choosing to focus on his music career for the time being and doesn’t see himself taking another film project soon, thus making his return as Starfox a bit difficult – but Eternals 2 can survive without him.
What Eternals 2's Story Could Be (Without Harry Styles' Eros)
Kevin Feige revealed the whole slate for the MCU’s Phase 5 and three movies from Phase 6 (Fantastic Four, Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, and Avengers: Secret Wars), but Eternals 2 wasn’t included. Eternals has felt disconnected from the rest of the MCU and only recently, thanks to She-Hulk’s episode 2, the events in it were addressed, though subtly, so the future of the Eternals in the MCU is a mystery for now. The news about Harry Styles’ career plans could be a problem for Eternals 2, but the sequel can carry on without Starfox. Although Starfox told Thena (Angelina Jolie), Makkari (Lauren Ridloff), and Druig (Barry Keoghan) that he knew where to find the rest of the team, this could be retconned in order to delay Starfox’s involvement with the Eternals. It wouldn’t be the first time the MCU retcons a post-credits scene, and it would allow Marvel to move forward with Eternals 2 without having to depend on Harry Styles’ availability.
Eternals 2 could also opt for an easy way out by having Starfox share what he knows about Arishem and the rest to Thena, Makkari, and Druig, and leaving, though that would be an underwhelming explanation – but then again, the MCU is no stranger to these type of easy solutions. The main thing to address in Eternals 2 is the abduction of half the team and how Arishem will judge them, so the story doesn’t really have to depend on Starfox’s presence, and he can return in either a third Eternals movie or another one from Phases 5 and 6, such as Secret Wars, or if Harry Styles continues to focus on his music career, he might not be back until Phase 7, while the Eternals continue on their own.
