Marvel Reportedly Considered Bringing Original Avengers Cast for New Movie, Replacing Jonathan Majors, More

The idea involved resurrecting Robert Downey Jr’s Iron Man and Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow, though Marvel isn’t fully committed to it.

Written by Rahul Chettiyar, Edited by Manas Mitul | Updated: 2 November 2023 13:26 IST

Marvel Reportedly Considered Bringing Original Avengers Cast for New Movie, Replacing Jonathan Majors, More

Photo Credit: Marvel Studios

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has struggled to impress audiences since the Infinity Saga ended

Highlights

Marvel executives discussed replacing Kang the Conqueror with Dr. Doom
Replacing Jonathan Majors in upcoming movies is also an option
The Marvels required about four weeks of additional reshoots

Marvel Studios reportedly held talks to bring back the original cast members for a new Avengers movie. As per Variety, studio executives, including President Kevin Feige, recently discussed the idea of reviving Robert Downey Jr.'s Tony Stark/ Iron Man and Scarlett Johansson's Natasha Romanoff/ Black Widow for a new saga — albeit they aren't committed to it. It's not even surprising to see something like this happen in a superhero movie, given comic books are notorious for killing off characters and resurrecting them. However, doing so in Hollywood could require a big investment, with the report noting that Downey's salary for 2013's Iron Man 3 was $25 million (about Rs. 208 crore).

Marvel has released some stinkers this year, with both its slate of films and TV shows like Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and Secret Invasion releasing to widespread negative reception. With films in Phase Four failing to impress despite commercial success, and its Phase Five faltering, it's hardly surprising that Marvel is considering getting the old band back together. But betting on something this monumental could be risky — even if the fans would be excited about it.

You see, the reason the Russo Brothers' Avengers: Endgame performed well at the box office was partly because of its conclusive ending. The movie was fitting culmination of years of hype and character development over 22 preceding films. Reviving characters just out of the blue would raise questions about canon events, in addition to being an extremely obvious attempt to capture the long-lost Marvel magic that had audiences lining up at theatres at midnight. The superhero movie fatigue has never been so clear, and the MCU is still trying to salvage what they can to deliver a proper ending to the Multiverse Saga.

According to the Variety report, discussions also focused on the franchise's current main villain Kang the Conqueror, played by Jonathan Majors, who's been involved in legal issues this year. The actor was arrested in March on charges of domestic violence, with Disney seemingly in wait to see how the ordeal plays out. Majors' upcoming film Avengers: The Kang Dynasty isn't slated to begin filming until 2024. The actor was eventually dropped by his managers and hit with more allegations, as he now prepares to stand for a trial in November. The controversy has caused Marvel executives to consider another key villain, the genius Dr. Doom — a huge shift, considering the studio has built up Kang to be the ultimate adversary through both seasons of Loki and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. Variety's sources, however, insist that Marvel had considered building up a new villain regardless of Majors' legal run-ins, owing to Quantumania's poor box office performance.

A chunk of the film's criticism stemmed from subpar CGI, with VFX artists pointing fingers at Marvel Studios for diverting all its major resources towards other films like Black Panther: Wakanda Forever — thereby leading to time constraints. Long working hours and unrealistic deadlines caused the VFX department to unionise in September, with some claiming that the VFX head Victoria Alonso was responsible for the lacklustre effects. She was fired in March, citing a contract breach, albeit insiders believed that quality assurance was freefalling since they began dishing out Disney+ Marvel shows. Meanwhile, another group claims that Alonso was simply a ‘scapegoat' and that the CGI issues in the She-Hulk: Attorney at Law show stemmed from scripting and scheduling conflicts, causing artists to fix them in post-production.

The studio prepares for its newest film on November 10 — The Marvels starring Brie Larson, Iman Vellani, and Teyonah Parris, which was made on a $250 million (about Rs. 2,081 crore) budget. The report notes that the film warranted four weeks of reshoots, with its director Nia DaCosta heading out to work on another movie during the post-production stage. “If you're directing a $250 million movie, it's kind of weird for the director to leave with a few months to go,” Variety's source claimed.

Furthermore, the long-gestating Blade reboot film starring Oscar-winner Mahershala Ali, which has cycled through multiple writers and directors, is being tweaked from the ground up. Turns out, the vampire tale once morphed into a ‘narrative led by women and filled with life lessons,' while the lead was buried way below. Ali, at one point, was willing to leave the project due to script issues, but Feige then hired Logan writer Michael Green to whip up a fresh story, which will be developed at a $100 million (about Rs. 832 crore) budget. Blade is now eyeing a release sometime in 2025.

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The Avengers

Release Date 27 April 2012
Language English
Genre Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi, Superhero
Cast
Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Tom Hiddleston, Clark Gregg, Cobie Smulders, Stellan Skarsgård, Samuel L. Jackson
Director
Joss Whedon
Producer
Kevin Feige

Avengers: The Kang Dynasty

Release Date 1 May 2026
Language English
Genre Superhero
Director
Destin Daniel Cretton
Producer
Kevin Feige

The Marvels

Release Date 10 November 2023
Language English
Genre Action, Adventure, Superhero
Cast
Brie Larson, Iman Vellani, Teyonah Parris, Samuel L. Jackson, Zawe Ashton, Park Seo-joon, Saagar Shaikh, Zenobia Shroff, Mohan Kapur
Director
Nia DaCosta
Producer
Kevin Feige

Blade

Release Date 7 November 2025
Language English
Genre Superhero
Cast
Mahershala Ali, Delroy Lindo, Aaron Pierre
Director
Bassam Tariq
Producer
Kevin Feige

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Further reading: marvel, marvel studios, mcu, avengers, robert downey jr, scarlett johansson, jonathan majors, avengers the kang dynasty, ant man and the wasp quantumania, loki, kevin feige, the marvels, blade, blade release date, nia dacosta, mahershala ali, ant man 3 vfx, hollywood