Scarlet Johansson expects Marvel could call on Gwyneth Paltrow for the rest of her natural-born life
Scarlet Johansson and Gwyneth Paltrow reflect on their time in the MCU, which is probably over
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The Marvel Cinematic Universe may be the kind of club you can never leave. Chris Evans is still being asked if he’ll return as Captain America, despite the fact that his character arc concluded in Avengers: Endgame and there’s a whole new Captain America in the MCU. Scarlet Johansson at least has the protection of an onscreen death (though superheroes are always being resurrected, so who knows), but her co-star Gwyneth Paltrow could be brought back as Pepper Potts at any moment.
“I’m done. Chapter is over. I did all that I had to do,” Johansson shared during a recent appearance on The Goop Podcast. “Also coming back and playing a character again and again, over a decade of time, is such a unique experience.” Paltrow agreed that she was probably also done, though she noted, “I mean, I didn’t die so they can always ask me.”
“I think you may come back at some point,” Johansson said, prompting Paltrow to joke, “Really? A 64-year-old Pepper Potts? How great.” The Iron Man star probably shouldn’t give the studio any ideas, as Johansson said, “100% that’s happening. I can see it. They’re never gonna let you go. Break out that wig, baby.”
Truthfully, Paltrow probably wouldn’t even realize it if she had filmed another MCU appearance at this point. But Marvel loves a good cameo, so Johansson probably isn’t far off the mark. Take Hayley Atwell, for instance: since originating the role of Peggy Carter in Captain America: The First Avengers, she’s gotten a spin-off, had several flashback cameos, appeared in old age makeup, died, and played an alternate universe version of herself (multiple times). Once the MCU has its claws in, it’s definitely reluctant to let go.
One thing that can be said about Paltrow’s Marvel tenure, at least, is that it did not prompt a feud with Scarlett Johansson. Apparently, Paltrow gets asked a lot if they were beefing on the set of Iron Man 2, which surprised the Black Widow star. “Is that a rumor?” she asked. “You were so nice to me on that movie. I was so petrified. You were so nice to me! You could’ve been awful. I was so out of my comfort zone on that movie. I’d never done anything like that before. Plus, you had established such deep friendships.”
For her part, Paltrow “was so happy to have another woman around,” and she certainly related to Johansson’s feeling of overwhelm. “It was fun to be in something that resonated so deeply with people culturally,” she reflected on launching the MCU with Iron Man. “I had never been in that kind of a blockbuster franchise thing either. It was new for me.” Now that it’s old hat, though, it sounds like she’s ready to hang up her suit.
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Is that Gwyneth’s current face, or an older pic?
The photo is from October 2022.As to whether it’s Gwyneth’s current face…
She’s 50, the photo’s low-res, and Blythe Danner’s her mom, so the aging curve seems about right.
I commented on one of the posts about the ski accident trial that in some of the shots which were circulating, she was almost indistinguishable from her mother.
“Once the MCU has its claws in, it’s definitely reluctant to let go.”
This is kind of a weird line. It’s not like Disney can force any of these actors to come back after they’ve fulfilled their contract. It’s just up to the actors to turn down however many dump trucks full of money Disney parks in their driveways if they no longer wish to be involved.
No, no, you see, the MCU is FORCING all of these actors to work and be in big movies and get paid. It’s a conspiracy.
Actually, there’s a clause in their contracts that they can be forced to come back at Marvel’s whim unless they’ve played Uncle Ben or Bucky Barnes.
I mean with the growth of AI technology I’m sure we’re not far off from some kind of hellscape where they can eventually just pay for an actor’s likeness rights and have Thor (or whoever) at least cameo in stuff for all time. You’re right that we’re not there yet though.
I don’t pretend to know how things actually work in Hollywood
All of this only makes me suspect even more that Scarlet’s back in the MCU in “Secret Invasion.” The comics hinged on bringing a few people back from the dead, revealing that the characters who’d been killed were Skrull imposters. I fully believe that ScarJo is going to be the one that the TV series uses as its big surprise, although comics fans may see it coming.
She would have turned into a Skrull when she splattered on Vormir, however maybe Hawkeye flashed away before that happened.
That would be nuts, the series already has an absurdly stacked cast which is just pissing money down the drain for a disney + series imo.
It’d be weird for a Skrull impostor to sacrifice themselves on Vormyr, for a couple of reasons: It’d drastically undercut the impact and meaning of Nat sacrificing herself (oh it wasn’t actually her, it was just some random Skrull?), not to mention having to explain why such a person would bother going to all that trouble to impersonate Nat just so that they could *checks notes* commit suicide.
The only way to make that work would be to say Black Widow was secretly a Skrull for along time – possibly the entire time we’ve known her in the films (going back to 1995 is possible), or, more likely, ever since Civil War. To say that Fury/Shield/ Ross/ whoever let Nat go after her sister died and replaced her with a Skrull could maybe work, but it wouldn’t be great. To say she was a Skrull any time before that completely undoes all of the Black Widow movie, what with all the memories she has of growing up and her relationship with her sister.
So yeah, Black Widow swapped with a Skrull sometime between Civil War and Infinity War? Maybe then we can blame that on why the Nat/Banner relationship never returned, and good riddance.
tbf, a fake Nat would still be invested in saving the universe.
Presumably, sure. And Marvel could certainly come up with a plausible in-world explanation for why that person did that, and why Nat wasn’t really Nat, etc. But the major problem remains that it would undermine the audience’s emotional connection to the character and event. We all had emotions about Nat dying, and to find out years later “oh yeah, it wasn’t really her” would probably piss off a lot of people.
Except that was the point of the Secret Invasion comics – the Skrulls had gotten so ingrained into their hero identities that they did whatever they thought was expected of the hero. Thus the Mockingbird death/revival.
I’m not a comics reader, so I’ll take your word for it, but for my part bringing back Nat in the MCU by way of “oh that wasn’t really her” would come off, to me, as not playing fair with the audience.
Were I in charge and had no restrictions of budget and actor schedule, I’d have figured out a way to work in Pepper and references to Tony in the WandaVision episode where Wanda tries to go get Vision’s body.
Pepper: “Director Hayward, my husband created that being and considered the person who it was based on a second father. The disposal of his remains is an issue for the Stark Estate, not for the government.”
Haydick: “That is $40 billion in vibranium. We aren’t giving it up.”
Pepper: “Oh, vibranium? One moment. Thanks for waiting. I just spoke to Queen Ramonda. Wakanda will not lift a finger to help the U.N. deal with all the returning people if that vibranium isn’t returned… Expect a call from the President in 4 minutes”
And then Hayward sneaks White Vision away and the fight goes on, but at least Wanda was able to call in a few favors to try.
Job security, baby!
natural-born lifeInteresting choice of words. Is Goop sitting on something we don’t know about.
A bunch of giant candles that when melted are revealed to be cryo chambers for Gwyneth clones.
“Is goop sitting on something…”
You mean other than jade eggs?
… I walked into that.
That’s what she said.
I mean they joke but there’s no way that there’s not some movie/TV product already planned years down the line for Tony and Pepper’s daughter, and I’m sure they’ll be more than happy to drop off another dump truck of money to have her show up in some capacity or another.
The fact that Pepper didn’t do anything to help Peter Parker in No Way Home (either to get into MIT or when bad publicity was destroying his life) makes me thing she probably sold off her ownership of Stark industries and started up a lifestyle brand.
Called Poop?
Admittedly it’s weird that she didn’t do anything at first, but maybe she’s the sort of oblivious who thought that it would blow over, like Tony when he declared he was Iron Man. And once Spidey got rejected from MIT, the whole thing went upside down REALLY fast, and Peter didn’t even know/think to call MIT before going right to Doctor Strange. So him not calling Pepper makes sense, weirdly. The whole timeline there was very compressed and strange, but I’d love it if there’s a deleted scene of Pepper trying to call Aunt May while the phone is disconnected because Goblin is destroying the building.
Ya the getting into MIT thing is a bit more tricky because of how fast it happened, but Peter getting outed as Spiderman and having to hire Matt as his lawyer because that was the only one he could afford and then stay in Happy’s apartment because there was no where is he could go makes Pepper look shitty considering how much Tony loved him and how it was all over the news.That said I would love it if there was an alternate scene where Pepper calls MIT and reminds them how her husband donated a holodeck and then funded research for a auditorium full of people (and also died saving the world) and then says his teen genius protege wants to go there. Just to see how they could possibly say no.
Agreed! Everything up to the MIT stuff she should have been involved with (and then the MIT stuff wouldn’t have happened. Probably.)But also it’s not even just Pepper. I get everyone had a lot going on post-snap 2, but no one thought to reach out to poor Peter and his aunt? Tony knew him best, but think about all the people at his funeral. Fury couldn’t make a phone call? Damage Control should have been salivating at the idea of effectively forcing a superhero to join their ranks. Strange had a lot going on but he couldn’t make a few calls? Hell, even Matt as his lawyer should have been able to help in some fashion. There’s a lot of weirdness around the whole thing. I still love the movie, but after you watch it 7 or 8 times (my kid is obsessed) you start to think way too hard about some of the plot holes.
Or a chain of marijuana dispensaries, called Pepper’s Pot.