I know what you’re thinking. Why on God’s green earth am I suggesting the MCU character almost everyone rolled their eyes at should return after appearing in the movie everyone unilaterally agrees is one of the franchise’s worst?
Poor critical reception or not, Eternals is still a player on the Marvel chessboard, and the Multiverse Saga’s storyline depends on the storylines it teased. Case in point: Harry Styles as Eros aka Starfox aka Thanos’ brother in the movie’s post-credit scene.
On paper alone, the brother of the Big Bad who terrorized Earth’s Mightiest Heroes in the Infinity Saga feels like the perfect follow-up to headline the subsequent saga. As we know, that hasn’t happened, and probably for the best as Kang is — again, on paper — the better villain to see the MCU through the next several years of its evolution. Still, there’s a Harry-style-sized hole in the MCU that speaks to a greater problem plaguing the cinematic franchise.
If you recall, we have been teased a number of characters and storylines throughout phases four and five that remain so firmly stuck in limbo it’s starting to feel like they’re in purgatory. You have the homing beacon inside the Ten Rings that still hasn’t been explained; you have Starfox and the Ebony Blade arc in Eternals that has gone nowhere; you have Clea coming to Doctor Strange at the end of Multiverse of Madness; Hercules and Love from Thor: Love and Thunder; Toussaint from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever; and Phyla-Vell aka Quasar from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.
That’s not even an exhaustive list of the storylines that have gone nowhere — that’s just from post-credit scenes alone. Sure, the Infinity Saga had its fair share of dead-end plot points, but the Multiverse Saga is piling them up with concerning efficiency.
At this point in the Infinity Saga — 10 movies in — we were at Guardians of the Galaxy and fully comprehending the gravity of the Infinity Stones and the danger they posed should they wind up in the wrong hands. The only semblance of an overarching plot thus far in the Multiverse Saga has come from Kang and his dynasty of variants in the post-credit scene of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. Everything else along the way has been left to fizzle so long they’re turning flat before our very eyes.
If there’s a through-line in the Multiverse Saga, it’s buried beneath the carcass of long-forgotten characters and plots. At present, Black Widow is the only Multiverse Saga movie that paid off its post-credit scene; watching Valentina Allegra de Fontaine show Yelena Clint Barton’s photo knowing the two will cross paths in Disney Plus’ Hawkeye is actually quite refreshing.
My only hope is The Marvels’ post-credit scene (because we know there will be one) holds off on introducing anyone or anything brand new unless there are immediate plans to pay it off in Deadpool 3, Captain America: Brave New World, or Ms. Marvel season 2 (even that feels a tad too long). Marvel’s best bet would be to use the post-credit scene in The Marvels to answer a question instead of posing a brand-new one.
Something tells me we might never see Harry Styles in the MCU again. That’s just me. If so, don’t let this Grammy Award-winning singer’s selfless sacrifice be in vain, Marvel. However, if Marvel does intend to get the Multiverse Saga back on track, bringing back Harry and all the other post-credit scene victims is a great place to start.