With the Infinity Saga coming to a close, Marvel Studios is preparing to launch into an all-new, all-different era beginning with Phase 4. While several properties are going to serve as deeper dives into already established characters and worlds, Eternals is going to introduce new characters and change what we think we know about the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The Eternals were born in the mind of Jack Kiby as Marvel Comics “ancient aliens”: beings of immense power who had protected Earth since the beginning of time. Over the course of history, the Eternals and their enemies, the Deviants, worked their way into the religions and mythologies of many cultures gods and monsters, angels and devils and heroes and villains. Marvel Studios will certainly put their own spin on the characters, but we can still take an opportunity to get to know them here…in 400 words or less!
Despite his child-like appearance, Sprite is thousands of years old and the inworld inspiration behind William Shakespeare’s mischievous A Midsummer Night’s Dream prankster, Puck. The ageless Eternal has spent much of his time on Earth developing his illusion casting skills to the point where they rival those of fellow Eternal Sersi. While he typically uses them to play pranks on humans, Sprite’s biggest “prank” was forcing the Eternals to forget who they were and strip them of their powers as his revenge for them treating him like a child. That prank turned out to be his last as he was killed by Zuras as punishment for the near world-ending catastrophe his subsequent actions caused.
Marvel Studios has cast newcomer Lia McHugh as the Eternals Peter Pan analogue and to this point we have heard very little about what role Sprite will play in the film. Given the relative lack of source material for the character, there are only a few possible options, one being described above while another option would tie into the original Kirby series as see Sprite free Gilgamesh from his captivity in a move that helped save the day. Whatever the case, be prepared for all kinds of mischief when Eternals hits theaters in November of 2021.
