Gwyneth Paltrow has been part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe since the beginning, starring opposite Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark as Pepper Potts in Iron Man. She’s since reprised the character in six more movies, although Paltrow has also frequently demonstrated MCU cluelessness, like forgetting she worked with Tom Holland in Spider-Man: Homecoming. So when someone asked her what Pepper’s been up to since we last saw her in Avengers: Endgame, she gave a delightfully on-brand explanation.
When we left off with Pepper in Endgame, which can be streamed with a Disney+ subscription, she was attending Tony’s funeral with their daughter Morgan, close friends James Rhodes and Happy Hogan, and so many of her late husband’s fellow superheroes and allies. Six and a half years after the movie’s release, and roughly that same amount passing within the MCU itself, Gwyneth Paltrow was asked for her thoughts on Pepper’s current status while appearing on Entertainment Weekly’s The Awardist podcast. After acknowledging that she “would’ve had to see all the Avengers movies to get some story context for what she’s doing,” the Marty Supreme star speculated:
She’s been raising a kid and doing spreadsheets. Maybe she’s on some boards and doing some advisory work, and maybe she’s dating.
Yeah, that tracks. Morgan was born shortly after Thanos snapped half of all life in the universe away, making her five years old post-time jump in Avengers: Endgame. So she’d likely be in middle school about now, and Pepper Potts would be balancing taking care of her daughter with also continuing her duties as Stark Industries’ CEO. Enough time has also passed that it’s easy enough to imagine that Pepper has dived back into the dating pool, although I’d argue there aren’t any men out there who have the same kind of charm that Tony had.
So that answer was reasonable enough, but then Paltrow reverted to her usual state of MCU ignorance after musing about Pepper’s dating life. Namely, she couldn’t remember where things stand with Robert Downey Jr. in the franchise, saying:
Or did they bring Robert back to life? I don’t know. I can’t keep track.
Ok, now we’re back to business as usual with her. Gwyneth Paltrow is referring to how RDJ is returning to the MCU to play Doctor Doom in Avengers: Doomsday, one of the final 2026 movie releases. While it hasn’t been officially cleared up if this take on Victor von Doom is a Tony Stark variant or something else entirely, he’s definitely not the resurrected Tony we followed along with for 11 years. But don’t expect Paltrow to remember any of this information, especially since there’s no indication she’ll appear in Doomsday.
Of course, Marvel’s known for its surprises, so maybe Gwyneth Paltrow is secretly slated to show up in the next Avengers movie. Or maybe she is indeed absent from Doomsday, but will return in 2027’s Avengers: Secret Wars or a different upcoming Marvel movie. Whatever the case, I doubt Paltrow will give any deeper thought to Pepper’s status these days… not unless she’d getting paid to.
