As we recently learned from set photos, Gwyneth Paltrow will be returning as Tony Stark’s fiancee Pepper Potts in Avengers 4. To make the announcement official, Robert Downey Jr. has now taken to social media to share an image of himself, Jon Favreau (who plays Tony’s right-hand man, Happy Hogan) and Paltrow, captioning it: “Infinity trinity.”
You can check it out for yourself down below, but once you pull your gaze away from the actors’ happy faces, you might notice that Downey is wearing some kind of metal chest plate – even though he clearly tried to cover it up with a jacket tied around his neck. While unconfirmed, this would suggest that Tony will be getting a new arc reactor in the upcoming movie.
This follows on from what we’d already figured out a few months ago, when Downey shared an image of himself, Mark Ruffalo and Benedicts Cumberbatch and Wong on the set of Avengers: Infinity War. In that photo, the actor had a circular arc reactor-shaped hole cut into his shirt.
Again, all of this is unconfirmed, but it does raise a lot of questions, as Tony hasn’t had his arc reactor for years – ever since he got it surgically removed in 2013’s Iron Man 3. It’s possible that he gets severely injured again in Infinity War, requiring him to go full circle and install another reactor to keep himself healthy, but we can’t say for sure just yet.
Alternatively, the arc reactor might just be a technological addition and not a part of his body. Maybe Tony needs the power of the reactor to give his suits of armour a boost. After all, it’s going to take as much fire power as he’s got to bring down Thanos with his fellow heroes.
Unfortunately, it may be some time before we find out for sure, as Avengers: Infinity War is still a ways off, with the film set to arrive in cinemas on May 4th, 2018. Avengers 4 then lands in theatres on May 3rd, 2019. In the meantime, though, feel free to leave your thoughts on all this in the usual place.