The long-suffering girlfriend and colleague of Tony Stark — Pepper Potts — will likely return for Avengers: Infinity War. And this time, Pepper and Tony might finally be married.
On Tuesday, paparazzi set photos from Avengers: Infinity War seem to show Gwyneth Paltrow rehearsing with Robert Downey Jr. on the set of the next Marvel epic. Tabloid paper the Daily Mail pointed out that Paltrow looked to be wearing a wedding ring, which could indicate Pepper is finally married to Iron Man in the new movie. At the end of Spider-Man: Homecoming, Tony Stark makes a surprise marriage proposal to Pepper following at least two movies worth of estrangement between the characters.
On Tuesday, Jon Favreau seemingly confirmed Pepper’s return by tweeting a picture of himself in costume as Happy alongside Robert Downey Jr. and Gwyneth Paltrow, with the caption: “Infinity Trinity #infinitywar.”
In-universe reasons for Pepper’s absence in the Marvel Cinematic Universe have been scarce since Avengers: Age of Ultron. In Civil War, Tony was clearly embarrassed by his inability to make the relationship work, making Pepper’s return in Homecoming something of a shock. In the real world, it appears Paltrow’s commitment to her company Goop, combined with other scheduling issues, have prevented her from returning to the Marvel universe sooner.
With Pepper back for Avengers: Infinity War, there’s every reason to believe that this franchise-uniting event will have some very real stakes for the one Avenger who started it all: Tony Stark. Because if Iron Man is married to Pepper, he’s a family man now. And that means it’s possible that he might finally want to stop putting himself in danger all the time. After all, in Iron Man 3 he promised Pepper he’d stop being a superhero.
Now that Pepper is back, here’s hoping the Avengers get it together and invite Nick Fury to the back to the party, too.
Avengers: Infinity War will be released on May 4, 2018.
See also: Here’s How Old All the Avengers and Guardians Will Be in Infinity War
