Marvel Studios thinking of reviving Iron Man and Black Widow

There’s a lot to raise an eyebrow about in Variety’s new report on the internal turmoil of Marvel Studios in 2023. There are the worries about Kang, battles over special effects work, and, oh yeah, reports from anonymous sources that studio execs have considered just making a new Avengers movie — but with all of the old Avengers.

Variety presents a Marvel Studios that is struggling to maintain quality work and audience energy after Disney Plus and a lackluster box-office haul (not even to mention a poor critical reaction). According to reports, solutions include decreasing output, cutting budgets, and lowering expectations. Iron Man, Black Widow, or both, could be revived for a brief moment.

“There have been talks to bring back the original gang for an ‘Avengers’ movie,” according to Variety’s sources. “This would include reviving Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man and Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow, both of whom were killed off in ‘Endgame.’ […] But the studio hasn’t yet committed to the idea.”

It’s a good thing to do. Downey Jr. and Johansson are some of the highest paid actors in Hollywood today, and they’re just two of six actors whose stars have risen considerably since they were originally brought under a Marvel contract — and they could be plenty skeptical of such a move.

It’s also for good reasons. Death and resurrection might go hand in hand in the land of comic book superheroes, but anyone who actually reads the books will let you know that it might be the genre’s biggest double-edged sword. Everybody knows that death and resurrection are synonymous in the world of comic book superheroes, but anyone who has read them will tell you it’s probably one of their biggest double-edged swords. Superman’s DeathYou can also find out more about Dark Phoenix Saga — considered among of the medium’s great classics — there are a dozen forgotten (at best) or reviled (at worst) stories that failed the fan sniff test.

The same issues apply to live-action films as they do in print (and perhaps more so, since contracts have a finite duration and the actors are aging). The first Iron ManMarvel Cinematic Universe is now 15 years old, having been released in 2008. That’s exactly how long the MCU’s biggest inspiration, Marvel Comics’ freshly rebooted Ultimate Marvel setting, lasted before buckling under its own alternate continuity and getting the axe. DC Comics is more used to reboots and has a much longer history of continuity than Marvel.

Do Marvel Studios require a reboot or a new launch? It remains to be determined. But you can safely bet that it won’t do it exactly like the comics would, did, or ever have.