Harry Styles made a surprise MCU debut three years ago in Eternals and hasn’t been so much as mentioned since – but Marvel may have just wasted the easiest way to bring him back. Eternals was one of the first MCU movies in a post-Infinity Saga landscape, but unfortunately fell relatively flat compared to the money-spinning standard set by most MCU movies. The future of the eponymous heroes in the MCU is now unclear, with several MCU plot threads still hanging as a result.

One of the most prominent of these appeared in the Eternals mid-credits scene. This scene saw Harry Styles debuting as Eros aka Starfox, an Eternal and the brother of Thanos in Marvel Comics. The scene saw him briefly appear alongside Patton Oswalt’s Pip the Troll, with the star power of the two alone teasing an imminent return to the MCU. This finally occurred as part of an unusual spin-off, but Starfox’s return sidestepped the opportunity to reestablish the relevance of Styles’ involvement.

Starfox’s What If Return Would’ve Been The Easiest Way To Reference The Main MCU Character

What If…? – An Immersive Story is a mixed-reality video game that was released exclusively on the Apple Vision Pro, utilizing the What If…? animated show to depict all-new MCU stories that take place in alternate realities. One moment within the video game depicts Starfox’s return, as revealed below via The Cine Geek on Twitter/X:

The scene shows Thanos being held captive after attempting to steal the Reality Stone from Xandar. Starfox, as Thanos’ brother, attempts to sway the body tasked with deciding Thanos’ fate to vote in Thanos’ interests before the Mad Titan breaks free from his shackles and steals the Reality Stone regardless (which was bafflingly left within his reach).

What If…? – An Immersive Story was released on May 30.

Notably, this version of Starfox was not so much as voiced by Harry Styles. The What If…? show on Disney+ has a track record of having MCU actors reprise their roles, with the likes of A-Listers like Cate Blanchett lending their voices to the project. Despite this, Harry Styles is neither involved in this reappearance of his MCU character nor has Marvel Studios even attempted to make the animated version resemble the pop star. This reestablishes the question of whether Marvel intends to bring Styles back at all following his brief cameo in Eternals.

Will Harry Styles’ Starfox Ever Return To The MCU?

The most likely place where Harry Styles would return as Eros is as part of an Eternals sequel. Marvel has yet to confirm whether Eternals 2 is even in production, casting doubt over whether it will ever happen following a lackluster response to the team’s debut. On the other hand, the studio also hasn’t ruled it out. In fact, Kevin Feige has said that he is “excited” to see Eros return to the MCU as recently as November 2023 but stopped short of stating when or where that would be.

Harry Styles recently announced he was taking a break from acting, which may indicate why he wasn’t involved in the What If…? project.

Given the MCU is about to lean into the distinctly cosmic implications of the multiverse, it is hard to see how the Eternals and Eros won’t somehow factor in. Whether this will be part of an entire Eternals sequel or as participants in another project entirely – such as in the upcoming Nova show, or Avengers: Secret Wars – remains to be seen. Despite not being included in What If…? – An Immersive Story, however, Styles’ Starfox could still reappear in the upcoming What If…? season 3.