Even though Benedict Cumberbatch was completely unaware Harry Styles had joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe until somebody asked him about it, the longtime Doctor Strange voiced his enthusiasm for having the former One Direction member and budding actor become part of the team.
Having debuted in the second post-credits scene of Eternals, Styles evidently has a big future in the cosmic side of the superhero series, even if fans are still waiting anxiously to discover whether or not the sequel they’ve been hoping for will get a green light sooner rather than later.
Playing Thanos’ brother comes with its own set of expectations, and while the surprise was ruined moments after the world premiere had ended, Eternals effects chief Stephane Ceretti revealed in the Disney Plus audio commentary that he still wanted to ensure that Eros’ emergence from a portal after being heralded by Pip the Troll didn’t resemble the Sorcerer Supreme’s Sling Ring in any shape or form.
“The portal? Oh, it was just like… That was another portal where we were like, ‘I’m not going to do a circular portal. I’m fed up with…’ Because I had worked on Doctor Strange and I’ve done many portals in my life as a visual effects supervisor, and was like, ‘Let’s not do something we’ve done before. And so we looked around and I thought about things, and I wanted something colorful using kind of mirrors and, not Mirror Dimension style, but playing around with the idea that he was coming out from a bit of a disco place. But I thought it was appropriate for Eros.”
Doctor Strange’s conjurations have become the MCU’s go-to method of having characters pop up unexpectedly, so it makes sense to have Styles’ Starfox make his grand entrance under entirely different visual circumstances, especially when there’s an entire multiverse of intergalactic travelers out there with their own preferred modes of transport.