The Eternals’ Sprite is Now Human and Growing Up in A New McDonalds Happy Meal Commercial

Has the first official sequel to ETERNALS already arrived in the form of a McDonalds Happy Meal commercial? Possibly. But it’s probably more just a wink and a nod to the evolving fate of one of my favorite ETERNALS characters, Sprite. 

This month the Happy Meal theme is MCU’s ETERNALS. I loved ETERNALS. But I also think it has to be the oddest Happy Meal theme choice in a bit – but please understand, I am not complaining. That’s right the ancient apocalyptic superhero family of advanced beings consigned to watch over the fate of humans and planet earth – but not interfere unless it’s a deviant – and empowered by the super entities known as “the celestials” and specifically the being Arishem, now has its own Happy Meal line.

In the commercial for this series of Happy Meals we see one of the Eternals, Sprite, aka Lia McHugh, now growing up, possibly a few years after the events of ETERNALS. Sprite is now leading a 1980s style John Hughes-esque teenage existence, walking the dog, probably getting into trouble like the Breakfast Club or the kid from HOME ALONE, you get the idea.

Anyway the commercial starts with a child, presumably one of Sprite’s neighbors, after receiving an Eternals Happy Meal, asking her father what or who the Eternals are. I find this funny because the question as well as the inherent structure of the commercial makes it fairly obvious that ETERNALS is taking a bit more explaining to “gen-pop” than the usual MCU film. Like no kid is asking “Who is Black Widow?” or even “Who is Shang-Chi?”. But to be honest, that lack of an easily sellable idea and heroes that question their own existence is part of that is what makes me love ETERNALS (my favorite MCU film of the year) but it also is kind of what makes theming a Happy Meal around them a little complicated.

So the dad has to pitch the Eternals in like 5 seconds to his kid. And he does a great job – probably better than anything I would have said. He explains that Eternals are superheroes dressed like you and me, in hiding until they are needed to save the planet (or to destroy it – spoiler alert). The child asks if a passing fireman is an Eternal and later if some jump roping kids are Eternals. The dad just laconically responds “Maybe”.

But then Sprite, aka Lia McHugh herself, walks by, walking a dog, apparently a resident of this suburban bucolic neighborhood (PS I wonder if she has adopted parents – or does she own a home now? Does she still go by Sprite? Does she have a regular name or do people in 2021 think “Sprite” is just an ok regular name. If I ever have a daughter maybe I would name her Sprite… anyway) and the child asks Sprike aka Lia directly if she is an “Eternal”. Lia answers as Sprite, “If you say so”.

And then we get a close-up revealing that it is indeed Sprite/Lia, now growing up as a teenager. And we also get a picture of Sprite on the McDonalds milk bottle just to underline that this is indeed SPRITE FROM ETERNALS.

It looks like Sersi’s transmogrification of her being worked. Through the power of Arishem, Sersi was indeed able to grant Sprite the ability to transmogrify Sprite from a (spoiler alert) advanced alien AI robot (maybe?) into a real human and grow up – though lose her powers (try explaining that one dad) but be able to live this cool suburban life and walk a dog.

UNANSWERED QUESTIONS

Is Sprite an Eternal?

When Sprite answers “if you say so” she seems to be leaning into the fact that she is still an Eternal. But the actual resolution of the film would lead you down a different path that she is a human who is going to age and potentially lose her powers, and her life, eventually. So its a real odd tone here struck between the canon of the film and the commercial. And if this is meant to be a continuation of the film, does this mean Sprite will be joining the other Eternals in a sequel?

Who or what is the dog walking with her?

Sprite is walking a dog in the commercial and the MCU lunatic in me just wants to speculate, is this a dog that is somehow connected with the MCU. Could this be the first appearance of Lockjaw, the legendary Inhumans dog that has now been de-canonized in its one and only screen appearance on the ABC shows a couple of years ago (but is rumored to be showing up in Ms. Marvel next summer)??? Or could the dog possibly even Cosmo from Guardians of the Galaxy – last seen in the Collector’s fortress? The dog honestly looks most like Forey, also from the Inhumans. Maybe its Dogpool or Beast’s dog Sassafras (is this a nod to the X-Men??)

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I kid – sort of but this is the kind of lovely tidbit of lore that I brand this blog on. An absolute non-scoop but so fun to talk about. I still think its Forey.

Meanwhile there is STILL A CELESTIAL THAT IS APPRENTLY DEAD OR SEVERELY HIBERNATING IN THE INDIAN OCEAN.

Here is the full video of the commercial: