Chloé Zhao didn't have to try very hard to sneak some DC references into Eternals

Last week, Marvel released a preview video for Chloé Zhao’s Eternals designed to introduce Marvel Cinematic Universe fans to the newest batch of weird superheroes that nobody would’ve ever expected to see on the big screen. While mostly straightforward, the clip did feature a somewhat surprising little gag.

In a scene where Richard Madden’s Ikaris meets with the family of fellow immortal super-being Phastos (Brian Tyree Henry), the Eternal’s young son guesses that Ikaris is actually Superman because he saw him fighting a monster on TV with his laser eyes. The kid even says he saw Ikaris wearing a cape, which Madden shrugs off because nobody in the MCU wears a cape other than Vision and the Asgardians. (This kid obviously doesn’t watch the movies.)

The more notable reveal from this moment, though, is that it means Superman actually exists in the MCU as a fictional comic book character. Variety also points out that there’s a scene where another character refers to a valet as “Alfred,” which is another DC reference, implying that DC Comics as a whole exists in the MCU and nobody thought to bring it up until now.

Variety reached out to Zhao to ask how she pulled this off, and her answer is basically that she just went for it and nobody tried to stop her. She says the Superman thing was in the script and Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige didn’t have a problem with it, adding that she doesn’t even think there was a conversation about it. Everyone just let it slide.

Zhao points out that it’s actually a nice tie-in with the basic premise of the Eternals characters, which—as we explained several years ago at this point—is that these immortal super-beings aren’t literally the figures from our human mythology (the way Thor is) but that they are the real-life inspiration behind figures like that. So it’s not that Ikaris is Superman (or Icarus, for that matter), but he is the real guy that served as the inspiration for Superman-like characters throughout the history of mankind.

This is also a fun reference because it plays into the time-honored tradition of Marvel throwing in little jokey gags about its Distinguished Competition. For example, various alternate realities in the Marvel Comics multiverse feature a group of heroes called the Squadron Supreme, with members like Hyperion, Nighthawk, and Power Princess who are very direct rip-offs of Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman.

The recent Heroes Reborn crossover event was even about Mephisto (not literally Satan but basically Satan) removing the Avengers from the world and replacing them with the Squadron Supreme, creating a reality where Marvel’s heroes had to basically fight the Justice League. Green Goblin was the Joker analog! Deadpool was Harley Quinn! It was a lot of fun, and at the risk of looking like total fools in a few years, we’re going to guess that it’s something we will truly never see on the big screen.