Released in 2021, Eternals introduced a new team of superheroes into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The film, directed by Chloé Zhao, was not the hit many expected — critically, at least. The movie garnered a 47% Tomatometer score (Audience score of 78%), but did find success at the box office, earning $402 million worldwide during the pandemic.
Even with its revenue, though, Eternals didn't have the same impact on the 2010/2020s pop-culture zeitgeist that previous MCU entries had. Having said that, some may be surprised to hear that the film did have an unexpectedly fun (yet, admittedly fleeting) impact on one project — Showtime's Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber.
Released in 2022, Super Pumped is an anthology series that stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Uber co-founder and former CEO Travis Kalanick. The show charts his years of building up the company until his eventual departure. The Battle for Uber's connection to Eternals come in its first episode, "Grow or Die."
Near the end of the chapter, Travis Kalanick steps out of the Uber building (at that point in the story known as "UberCab"). As he walks down the street, a bus appears behind him for a few seconds (at the 34:44-minute mark). The bus features an Eternals poster, promoting its 2021 release.
The continuity error comes from the fact that this scene is supposed to take place in 2011 at the latest (UberCab rebranded as "Uber" in 2010), a little over ten years before the Marvel Studios film came out.
It's an easy detail to miss, but a surprising one, given how it muddles up the show's continuity, at least for those familiar with the MCU's release schedule.
Period series are a challenge to craft. Even after scanning sets and shots with a fine-tooth comb, tiny details like the one spotted above can seep through. There have been, after all, multiple cases of series and films with much more significant mistakes than the one in Super Pumped, such as Game of Thrones' infamous coffee cup and 2019's Little Women's apparent thermos in a shot featuring Timothée Chalamet's Laurie.
Ultimately, such errors are near-inevitable in period projects — even ones as close to the present as Super Pumped. As such, Eternals' unexpected appearance on that bus is not a significant mistake. It is, however, amusing to see that a Marvel Studios film inadvertently caused a continuity error in a Showtime series entirely unrelated to the company or its franchise.
Eternals is available to stream on Disney+, and is also available to purchase on 4K, Blu-ray and DVD. Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber is streaming on Showtime and on Hulu.