Just when you thought Gwyneth Paltrow had bowed out of the Marvel Cinematic Universe for pastures anew, the actress crops up for a small cameo at the tail-end of Spider-Man: Homecoming, proving that, yes, there’s still a future for her whip-smart Pepper Potts.
Case in point: four weeks ago, the actress was joined on set by Jon Favreau and Robert Downey Jr., the MCU stalwart who plays her husband and the all-around genius, billionaire, playboy, and philanthropist known as Tony Stark. Together, that trio makes up a very small part of the Avengers 4 cast, and over the past fortnight alone, the list of actors marked safe for Infinity War has grown immeasurably.
Assuming Marvel and the Russo Brothers don’t employ flashback sequences, the roster of heroes currently includes Black Widow, Hawkeye, Iron Man, Hulk, Captain America, and Sebastian Stan’s fan-favorite Bucky Barnes – along with Happy, Potts and Stark, of course. But at least according to Paltrow, who recently took part in an exhaustive interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Don Cheadle’s War Machine (AKA James Rhodes) has enlisted for Avengers 4, too.
Left paralyzed from the waist down following his involvement in Captain America: Civil War, Colonel James Rhodes was last seen being nursed along the road to recovery. From what we understand, Tony Stark fast-tracks some form of prosthetic device to help Rhodey walk again, meaning he’s still in the fight for both Infinity War and its unnamed sequel.
Here’s what Paltrow told THR:
I went to Atlanta to do Avengers 4, so I’m in and out for that, and it’s weird to go back and forth. We’re growing fast, and balls are dropping all the time. But honestly, I was on set and thought, ‘You sit here for two hours sipping tea, Robert Downey Jr. and Don Cheadle are making me laugh hysterically — why the hell did I give this up?’
Held up as a “huge” and sprawling event movie of “infinity proportions,” Avengers: Infinity War will signal the advent of Josh Brolin’s Mad Titan on May 4th, 2018, before Earth’s Mightiest Heroes regroup to finish the job via Avengers 4 the following year.
