Starfox Creator Didn't Know Who Harry Styles Was Before Eternals, Can't Stop Listening to His Music Now
Jim Starlin is on top of the world. Last summer, we spoke with the legendary comic creator about the various projects he was working on, and he couldn't help himself from publicly pleading with Marvel Studios to introduce Pip the Troll in live-action at one point or another. Fast forward a year and some change, and Pip the Troll is officially part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Not just that, but Eros has also joined the cinematic world, another one of Starlin's cosmic creations.
Played by Harry Styles, Eros serves as the star of the mid-credits scene in Chloe Zhao's Eternals, and the character is shaping up to have a major Marvel future. Whatever the case, Starlin wants you to know the character's name is Eros—not Starfox.
"I don't do Starfox," Starlin tells us after we called Styles' character by his codename. "That was when editorial got kind of chicken shit and decided they were going to change his name."
According to Starlin, Marvel Studios invited him to the premiere but he wasn't able to attend. Because the invite was extended, the creator was under the assumption Josh Brolin had a cameo in the movie as Thanos. As it turns out, two of his favorite creations ended up popping up instead.
"I kind of thought Pip might show, I actually expected Thanos to be in it. There'd been some rumor going around that a young Thanos was going to show up in the movie. Apparently not. He's mentioned, but he never shows up," Starlin recalls. "So Pip was not too much of a surprise. Eros was very much a big surprise, and all the impact that Harry Styles playing Eros is quite a surprise. I didn't see that one coming."
As far as Styles' performance goes, Starlin's on board with it all. The writer admits he had never heard of the actor beforehand but has quickly become a fan of the singer's.
"Harry Styles was a surprise. I'm an ancient coot, so my consumption of pop music stopped somewhere in the 1970s. So I have to admit, I did not know who Harry Styles was," the artist remembers. "I was going through a checkout line, and I saw a magazine on Harry Styles. And my thought was, 'Oh, it must be something from like, Martha Stewart Magazine,' And I thought it was such a strange name for a magazine on home decor."
Regardless, Starlin likes how the actor looks in the role.
"When it came out that he was the actor playing Eros, I had to go look him up," Starlin concludes. "And I was really quite surprised, I've got him on my Spotify now. There's a number of songs that I really rather liked. So I was brought back up into modern day and now know who Harry Styles is. And I think he'll be perfect as Eros. I mean, he's a really good-looking guy."
Eternals is now in theaters while Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings will be available for Disney+ subscribers to stream on November 12th.
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Cover photo by Amy Sussman/WireImage and Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for HS