TIL: Thanos has a brother, and he’ll be making an appearance in the MCU pretty soon. According to reports from the Eternals premiere, Harry Styles will soon be joining the MCU as Eros, Thanos’ brother and another Eternal.
In the comics, Eros is an Eternal, a unique race of undying humans with superpowers tasked with protecting Earth from the Deviants.
Now, the Eternals are kind of like immortal superheroes, and you may be wondering: since Eros is Thanos’ bro, how come it sounds like he’s one of the superheroes? Well, it turns out that Eros is a bit of a complicated character, which might be the reason why the films haven’t really mentioned him before.
Eros shares some similarities with his namesake, the Greek god of love. As an Eternal, Eros possesses superhuman strength, but he also has one more power — the ability to manipulate emotions. Eros’ character in the comics is also quite the womanizer. Sounds pretty different from Thanos, doesn’t he?
The two brothers grew up together on the planet Titan. Eros is a laid-back and fun-loving womanizer, in contrast to his brother’s misanthropic and power-hungry character. Thanos’ schemes prompted Eros to reflect and take action by joining forces with the Avengers to stop his brother. Eros eventually came to Earth and became an Avengers trainee, earning the codename Starfox. After that he popped up every now and then throughout the comics to lend a helping hand for Thanos-related issues.
However, there came a point when Eros became unhappy with his powers. There was an arc in the comics wherein he faces sexual assault accusations from several women on Earth, so he had to go on trial for it. In addition to that, he also had to go on trial back on his home planet Titan, because it is revealed that Eros had used his powers to manipulate his brother’s feelings towards Death, a detail about Thanos that the MCU films pretty much left out. Eros was punished for what he did to his brother, and as a result he made the decision to have his powers “blocked” so that he could never harm anyone with it again.
Eros is set to appear in the film Eternals, and it will be interesting to see how he will be introduced into the MCU. Being Thanos’ brother will probably have an effect on how the other Eternals will interact with him.
In the comics, Eros had frequently helped out the Avengers, but in his more recent appearances in the issues he mostly worked with the cosmic side of the MCU characters, like the Guardians of the Galaxy and the Nova Corps. This means it’s possible he’ll also appear in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, though this hasn’t been confirmed.
Fans are already hyped to see Harry Styles join the MCU, with some commending the singer for landing a major role in Marvel for his fourth acting role.
mercury is out of retrograde, Harry Styles is joining the MCU as god of love and sex, and I woke up before 8 AM today. all is well in the world
— carson (@CarsonMlnarik) October 19, 2021
do you call it perfect casting or harry styles in the MCU pic.twitter.com/IiOi2FVq6F
— shar 🍉 (@shexwoman) October 19, 2021
HARRY STYLES IN THE MCU HARRY STYLES IN THE MCU pic.twitter.com/YsuR0oNzO5
— kaylee (@SPRINGSWlFT) October 19, 2021
https://twitter.com/blacksounds_/status/1450398664954843143?s=20
"Starfox is a loving, charming and carefree person who has the ability to physically control people's emotions." THEY REALLY SAID HARRY STYLES BUT MCU EDITION
— ًsatellite (@latenightkyoto) October 19, 2021
harry styles in marvel. that's the tweet. pic.twitter.com/vJlVxV0LaK
— comfort for harries (@harriescomfort) October 19, 2021
https://twitter.com/eroda_avocado/status/1450332964517138433?s=20
if harry is in eternals that means that this would be his second movie… imagine being able to say that you started your acting career with a movie directed by christopher nolan and that the second time you appeared in a movie was in a marvel movie… only harry styles
— val (@sushidatehrry) October 19, 2021
"Let's go see The Eternals because you love Marvel and Harry Styles" pic.twitter.com/mFeIRQcIUS
— andy²⁸ | VOY A IR AL FITF WORLD TOUR! (@isonlythebrve) October 19, 2021
https://twitter.com/lilyanatpwk/status/1450413507954950151?s=20
Eternals is not the 27-year-old singer’s fourth shot at acting. Styles’ first acting role was in Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk, and his role as Eros in Eternals marks his second major acting role. He is also set to appear in Olivia Wilde’s Don’t Worry Baby, which will be released in 2022.
Eternals is set to hit theaters on November 5, 2021.
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