Disney’s stable of cinematic superheroes has grown exponentially over the years, with the likes of Tom Holland’s Spider-Man, Paul Rudd’s Ant-Man, and the Guardians Of The Galaxy adding texture and weight to the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s core ensemble. As such, the franchise can afford to cut a few heroes loose, and, though Avengers: Endgame is teasing an end for at least one (maybe two?) of the old guard, we’ve now got confirmation that another of the MCU’s progenitors will definitely be retiring their cape.
Gwyneth Paltrow, the snake oil peddler who’s played Pepper Potts since 2008's Iron Man, says she plans on abandoning the character after Endgame. “I mean, I’m a bit old to be in a suit and all that at this point,” Paltrow said. “I feel very lucky that I did it, because I actually got talked into it. I was friend with [Iron Man director] Jon Favreau. It was such a wonderful experience making the first Iron Man and then to watch how important it has become to fans.”
That said, she does clarify that she’d be willing to leave her upcoming Netflix talk show “for a day” to film a cameo or, ominously, “appear in flashbacks.” We know that things aren’t looking good for Pepper’s boo, but we’re still in the dark as to whether or not she survived the Infinity War culling. If not, could she resurrect Rescue to save Tony from outer space? She is the stone-cold killer of the MCU, after all.
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But what of GOOP!?
GOOP? More like POOP? AMIRITE?Please, consider carefully…
No GOOP for you!
She still has plenty of it between her ears.
It’s getting its own Netflix show. Not a joke.
Oh c’mon how is this not a joke? Goop’s moon juice friend is so easy to make fun of so I insist on posting another of her asinine videos.
I hope it’s just QVC style involving Paltrow in a Maude Flanders haircut talking to the camera and just incessantly telling people to call the toll-free number to get their vagina steamers while supplies last.
Goddamnit, I was only half paying attention and o thought we were talking about Doop.
Can’t we just say she died in the Snappening?
CONTAGION
Orchestrating an entirely random 50-50 chance of killing Gwyneth Paltrow — was Thanos’ real plan just to reboot Sliding Doors?
She was decapitated by sliding doors, and her head rolled straight into an empty cardboard box.
so THATS what was in the box part 2
Good. She was the worst actress in the Marvel movies.
I think Cobie Smulders has her beat, especially in the first Avengers.
Not commenting on “acting” ability but at least Maria Hill had actual impact on the plot. Kind of. She did rescue Black Widow and Cap in Winter Soldier anyway. I guess. Meh.
This statement could only be correct if everything about Cobie Smulders was not perfect, but it is, so you are wrong.
Good god, Smulders was abysmal in that film.
She was smoking in every scene. But quite slowly. Almost smoldering, if you will.
>>> “Good. She was the worst actress in the Marvel movies.” <<<.Exactly.Though Natalie Portman was a close second....
Yeah Portman was a tie in my opinion. She came off as not wanting to even be there.
portman is a horrible actress unless the roles fall RIGHT into her limited range. otherwise its a total cringefest.
I hate that I agree with that but I do. I think she’s a great person! But not a fantastic actress unless the role is either written for her or as you say, within her limited range.
So glad I found my people here. She’s intelligent and beautiful, which get you places in Hollywood. But her acting abilities are really nothing to celebrate.
V for Vendetta
And I’m sure that Rachel McAdams is third?
Bull. Iron Man wouldn’t have been nearly as successful without the dynamic between her and RDJ.
I thought she was great in the first ‘Iron Man’. She and RDJ have great, believable chemistry, and she gets to play a grounded, understated role and really sells it. But the more superhero stuff she’s had to do as the films go on, the less it’s worked for her.
Tony I’m so jealous. That space fasting has made you so much skinnier. Pepper I was starving to death.
And nothing of value was lost. She was ok in Iron Man 1 but her role and her acting went downhill fast.
My thought was oh yeah she was in Infinity War.
Speaking of that why in the hell does Tony Stark use a flip phone.
He recently upgraded and thought a smart phone was just too much stuff he didn’t need.
Soapdish was a goddamn amazing movie.
It was the burner phone Steve Rodgers sent him in Civil War.
It was the burner phone Steve Rodgers sent him in Civil War. That’s what I thought, then I thought, jeez, do they have someone working on continuity for everything??? Then thought yeah, probably – at the end of the first Iron Man, Fury says something like -do you think you’re the only superhero? and I guess we were supposed to connect that with him gathering intelligence on Thor and the Hulk and whoever, because Avengers.And that’s forward-thinking, but when you realize it really (probably) meant that he’d already met Carol Danvers – and just wouldn’t mention it because she wouldn’t be coming back from space unless she was really really needed on earth…Well. That’s pretty good continuity.
Paltrow: (excitedly) “So am I going to be getting a Rescue solo film after Endgame? Maybe a trilogy?!”Feige: (counting money) “Lol Fuck no. Don’t you have vapid divorcées with more money than sense to con with ‘toxin removal’ juices and vaginal rocks anyway?”Paltrow: “Oh. I guess. The Marvel thing was the only thing keeping me relevant, though. Can I at least say it was my idea to retire the character?”Feige: (still counting money) “Sure, knock yourself out.”
What a bullshit comment! Like we’re to believe that Feige doesn’t have someone to count all his money for him. Preposterous!
Well, he doesn’t count it as the peasants do. He had a huge pile that he dives into, a la Scrooge McDuck, and he checks once in a while to see if the diving board needs to be raised again.
I’ve heard he is skating bankruptcy and losing his friends and family due to a crippling baseball cap addiction.
Feige doesn’t count MCU money, he weighs it.
Robert Downey Jr. is probably gone so I’m not surprised. But I am pleased.
To commemorate and honor her time as Pepper Potts GOOP will be selling Vaginal Infinity Stones for tightness and health. Your husband won’t stop looking for those Infinity Stones.
The secret is GOOP’s patented time stone technology, which literally reverses the flow of history to give you the vagina of a 22-year old.
Do I smell a Doctor Strange crossover?Poor phrasing, I know.
“…for tightness and health…”I literally LOL’d.
A preview of the Vaginal Infinity Stones in special collector’s packaging:
Tony Stark is probably going to die in Avengers: Endgame, so there’d be no issues if her character also went away.
It’s kind of a bummer. She had a lot of chemistry with Downey Jr in at least the first Iron Man movie.
Came here to also say that I enjoy her in the MCU, as a counterpoint to all the hate.
I honestly found her quite fetching in The Avengers, sashaying around in those Daisy Dukes.
Fetching indeed.
I did, too. As usual on the internet, the hate seems utterly disproportional to reality.
Seconded. Don’t need to like her as a person to appreciate her talent.
Avengers: Endgame 2 will be a family drama about the heroes mourning Stark’s death and fighting over the inheritance, as old wounds are opened and new ones created.
It’d be funny if at the beginning of Spider-Man: Far From Home, they had Peter find out that Tony left him a huge chunk of money and assets in his will. That seems like something he would do – he has no other family other than Pepper Potts, and Peter is kind of his surrogate son in Homecoming.
Yep. And since I’ve always figured that Stark’s storyline for the film will be to go back in time and die fighting Thanos to prevent the Snappening, the film will probably also be a fitting end to Pepper’s character as well, a view of the future she and Tony could’ve had together but now never will because they’re both such self-sacrificing do-gooders.
i forget … she do Downey back in the 90s? I’m sure there’s a Buzzfeed “50 Former Gwyneth Paltrow Fucks” list … along with a companion “And 50 More Gwyneth Paltrow Fucks” that’s completely valid. The girl gets around.
Daffy, I’m constantly amazed at your inability to read a room.
She dated Brad Pitt and Ben Affleck before she got married to Chris Martin, so I doubt it?
When she was dating around and stuff RDJ wasn’t really doing so much professionally for reasons.
and she also done some dirty deeds w/ ROBERT SEAN LEONARD, DONOVAN LEITCH, JASON BLUM, SCOTT SPEEDMAN, CHRIS HEINZ, LUKE WILSON, JAMES PUREFOY, BRYAN ADAMS, along with Pitt, Affleck, Martin, and now Brad Falchuk. That’s a dozen dudes right there.
And the world uttered: Huh. K.
“Huh. K.”
Not really, all you have to do is pop the mask on then the rest is CGI.Though maybe it’s a perception thing, I know people commented on Cheadle looking old in Infinity War for example.
She’s hardly in The Avenger’s movies or any other movies for the matter. That Oscar she has sure has been put to good use.
End of an era, folks.
I guess I’m in the minority here but I’ve never had a problem with her as an actress. I don’t imagine I would like her much if I ever met her, but that, I’m sure, isn’t ever going to be an issue.I like the way Pepper is written in the MCU movies – she’s more than a match for Tony in wit, and certainly in practicality when it comes to business. And Paltrow and Downey have a nice screwball comedy vibe in their scenes together. Is she essential to the MCU? Nah, but she’s important enough, and was there at the beginning, so it’s a bit disrespectful to write the character off as the did Jane Foster, with a sentence.I do want to address Marvel names though – Pepper is just a nickname and Stan Lee was of course fond of alliterative names. So, Pepper Potts, just like… a pepper pot. Which I’m not sure was a common term in even back in 1963. I just love that Stan had a perfectly good name (Virginia Potts as I recall) and decided that Tony and everyone would call her Pepper. Oh, and “Happy” Hogan’s real name? Glad you asked. It’s Harold.
While there isn’t a whole lot to the character, I’ve always found her utterly charming in the role and an essential counter-balance to Tony.Without Pepper to humanize him, Stark is a straight up dick.
I think Tony is a very human and relatable character. I found his prickly nature a pretty understandable response to who he was and yet found a very human and compassionate undercurrent has been a constant element that Robert Downey Jr. brought to the character.
That said, I agree with you on Pepper and found she brought a humanizing element to him. Their interactions seemed to bring about a believable dynamic in their relationship and in revealing something about Tony that otherwise tends to be pretty buried. I cannot say that Pepper Pots or Paltrow’s portrayal of her is utterly irreplaceable or crucial to the Marvel universe or anything, however I thought she was a very charming presence and definitely balanced Tony.
I have also had a bit of a crush on Paltrow since seeing her in Sliding Doors and then The Royal Tennenbaums. I mean, she’d been in a lot of other stuff, but I found her compelling and charming in those roles, so I have been predisposed to enjoy her as an actress ever since. She can be very charming and is legitimately talented.
Pepper Pot is a soup, with tripe and peppers. Campbell’s made it until about 10 years ago (still made in Canada).
The term pepper pot would absolutely have been in common usage in 1963 – the objects themselves have been around since at least the 1920s and 1963 is also the year Doctor Who started and the world was introduced to the Daleks, which were almost immediately likened to pepper pots.
A “pepper pot” was definitely slang back then, and it meant a girl who was attractively racy and vivacious. Even in the 90s, there was a memorable if ungenerous phrase calling Monica Lewinsky, “the portly pepperpot”.
Thanks to all who let me know that “pepper pot” was indeed a term in use in 1963. I’m glad it was and it makes me love Stan Lee all the more.
ya know what … I’m allgood if this feckless GOOPy asshat backs out even before the flick is done. Why the fuck have her show up at all as what the fuck reason is she? But she did nail that one part of her role in Se7en … that part where her heads in a box. Yeah … she was real good not speaking an not alive … that’s where she shines.
I heard Pepper Potts is getting replaced by Cumin Colander
Is this news? She already teased her complete retirement from acting in that recent batshit Goop profile
I’m always grateful to the internet for telling me when nice things are actually terrible.
She wants to “spend more time with her family”?
I think Tony will retire as Iron Man and get out of the spotlight to live with Pepper and their child.
and how deeply we shall miss her
Well yeah, with Tony dead I can’t imagine Pepper being in a hurry to put the Rescue suit on and risk leaving their child an orphan.
“I mean, I’m a bit old to be in a suit and all that at this point,” Does she realize that she has not been playing a superhero?
Those Jade benwa balls don’t sell themselves!
“Gwyneth Paltrow to retire Pepper Potts following Avengers: Endgame”…Good.
A lot of people are assuming Tony dies in ‘Endgame’, and I really hope this isn’t the case. I’m okay with heroes dying; I’m expecting Captain America will, and that will be emotionally devastating but narratively satisfying. But I feel like a better ending to Tony’s arc is for him to finally move past Iron Man, realise that he’s achieved the heroism he wanted to, and retire happily with Pepper to start a family. He’s spent so much of the series thinking he has nothing to live for and no legacy to be proud of; giving him a family to love resolves this for him.
Do you also write “Tom Cruise, the Scientology nut” every time he’s mentioned at the AVC? Thought not.
Unless it’s related to the article, we don’t need to know or be reminded of what actors do outside of acting.
Arguably her promotion of “alternate healthcare” qualifies as acting.