How the real pop culture references in ‘Eternals’ break the MCU

I like a cheeky pop culture reference as much as the next movie-goer. But between Game of Thrones, Star Wars, Batman, Superman, BTS, and Lizzo: Eternals let the MCU get out of hand. 

Of course, referencing real entertainment is nothing new for Marvel. Captain America famously caught up on everything from Nirvana to James Bond following his multi-decade ice-nap. That proved to be a necessity with Tony Stark throwing around topical insults throughout the Iron Man trilogy and Avengers crossovers. (“No hard feelings, Point Break,” “Get lost, Squidward,” etc.) By the end of Phase III, real films like Back to the Future played a pivotal role in explaining the time travel-centric plot of Avengers: Endgame. While pop culture has helped to shape our understanding of Earth-616 thus far, what Eternals does with its references is something else.

There’s a fundamental difference between paying homage to something audiences love, using something recognizable to explain a concept, and sneakily laying claim to something that doesn’t belong to you. Eternals does a mixture of all three to varying degrees of effectiveness. The result is a resounding argument in favor of dropping meta references of every kind from a franchise that really doesn’t need them.

Put Lizzo and BTS in the MCU — or don’t.

Let’s start with the lowest level of offenses: Eternals’ Lizzo and BTS namedrops. Now, let me be clear. I love Lizzo. I love BTS. Who doesn’t? And therein lies the problem. 

Disney, which owns Marvel and Lucasfilm, has long been accused of offering lip service to cultures they don’t practically support. (See the company’s atrocious history of whitewashing and queerbaiting for details.) In the case of Eternals, the thoughtlessness isn’t so egregious as to trivialize identities. But having characters off-handedly reference some of the biggest names in music and the cultures they represent without offering viewers some greater understanding of why you picked those artists — outside of “Well, everyone loves them” — is deeply dissatisfying. 

First, a few seconds of Lizzo’s “Juice” plays as Sersi’s ringtone. Per the rapper-singer’s Twitter, that’s all well and fine. In fact, Lizzo is stoked to be in the MCU. But the mega-star also pointed out the obvious next step Marvel should have taken: Giving her a well-deserved, onscreen cameo role. Just reminding audiences that Lizzo and her banger of a song exists isn’t enough to properly represent her or her talents. But Lizzo’s suggestion of a PSA with Captain Steve Rogers? That seems like exactly the sort of thing her fans and Marvel fans would want to see.

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Second, when Kingo gets pulled into battle and away from his booming Bollywood career, the superhero complains that he was supposed to be performing with BTS the following day. We’re lucky enough to hear the BTS track “Friends” in the movie later, but there’s no further mention of the foremost group in K-pop. The obvious question to that is: “Well, why the hell not?” (BTS hasn’t said much about their addition to MCU canon, though Jimin did tell one excited fan he hadn’t seen Eternals yet.) 

For hardcore fans of Lizzo, BTS, Marvel, or all of the above, these one-offs aren’t just cute moments. They’re mind-bending fragments of a reality we want to know more about, but that Marvel hasn’t yet committed to making. C’mon, you know Lizzo would crush any scene they gave her. And if you’re going to put BTS in the MCU, I’m going to need someone answering my questions about that. 

Like, what happened during The Snap? Were all of the BTS members snapped? Were none of them snapped? Did only some of them get snapped and not others, resulting in a five-year age gap that would fundamentally change the group forever? I don’t know the answer to any of that. But if you’re going to reference the BTS A.R.M.Y., you have to consider these things.

No one needs to be reminded that Disney owns Star Wars.

Since Iron Man first emerged from an Audi, Marvel has pumped product placements into every twist and turn of its heroes’ journeys. Still, none of these advertisements have felt quite as cloying as Phastos’ son Jack showing off a Star Wars activity book in Eternals. The moment happens mid-way through the film, when a few of the Eternals come to Phastos’ house. Sitting down at a kind of children’s play area, Jack pulls out a book clearly marked Star Wars to show his dad’s friends. 

On its face, there’s the grossness of a franchise as big as Marvel plugging a franchise as big as Star Wars. (I swear, if they ever cross over, I will finish hatching that Celestial.) But considered more closely, putting Star Wars in the MCU destabilizes iconic characterizations from both of these storytelling worlds in a manner that feels not only cheap but also needlessly messy.

When Endgame came out, we noted the baffling anomaly that is actor Sebastian Stan in the MCU. To recap: By referencing Hot Tub Time Machine — a movie that stars Sebastian Stan — in Avengers: Endgame — a movie that also stars Sebastian Stan — viewers were forced to consider how common it is for major MCU celebrities to share the same face. Bringing up Star Wars in Eternals increases that problem ten-fold. Nick Fury looks like Samuel L. Jackson, aka Mace Windu. Jane Foster looks like Natalie Portman, aka Padmé Amidala. The problem goes on with Forest Whitaker, Jon Favreau, Donald Glover, and more. 

Sure, that’s all a bit heady and easy enough to ignore. In fact, we’ve been ignoring it since Avengers (2012), when Star Wars was first mentioned in the MCU. (It has come up numerous times since then, FYI.) Still, the supervillain levels of ickiness that come with knowing the two biggest franchises in movie history are owned by one company never fails to annoy. I won’t wax poetic on the importance of a diversified entertainment landscape here, but if you know you know: The Star Wars plugs are gross and Eternals really didn’t need one.

Holy smokes, leave DC Comics alone.

That said, for all its bloated billions, there are some stories Disney doesn’t own. Eternals has an especially weird way of showing it. 

Off the bat, there’s the strangeness of casting Game of Thrones actors Richard Madden and Kit Harington — particularly in a movie with a character named Sersi. I’m nit-picking here, since Eternals never directly acknowledges the Stark brothers’ onscreen reunion. But the wink-wink-nudge-nudge of the few moments Ikaris and Dane Whitman do share (plus the heaps of hype their casting got in the multi-year lead-up to Eternals) plays poorly. It comes off like a silly attempt to capitalize on an HBO show that’s been over for more than two years, not a clever reference that makes this story better. 

Later, Eternals takes a bigger swing by making DC Comics canon in the MCU. Referencing Batman, Gilgamesh jokes that Kingo’s valet Karun is “like Alfred.” Next, Phastos’ son Jack, the darling superhero fan that he is, mistakes Ikaris for Superman —  a comparison director Chloé Zhao herself has made.

Marvel and DC Comics have ribbed each other with references for years in the comic books. But taking the battle to the big screen feels less like cute camaraderie than ruthless punching down. If you haven’t noticed, the DCEU has struggled since, well, its inception. It has a tough time at the box office, as well as with critics and fans alike. Suicide Squad (2021) seemed to mark a turning point for the competing superhero saga. But it’s early days.

Maybe no one at HBO or DC really cares, and ultimately, the references barely registered with fans. (If anything, the internet has responded to Eternals’ pop culture moments with little more than a “neat” before diving into the movie’s handful of other problems.) Still, these felt bad to watch. 

By repeatedly reaching into our universe to feed its fans, Marvel has become a kind of reckless reference machine. As a result, Eternals feels less like an organic expansion on a fictional world we love than insincerity optimized for the masses. So, you’ll have to forgive me if I’m feeling protective.

Eternals is now in theaters.