No one can accuse Gwyneth Paltrow of pandering to fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe because once again, the Iron Man star has shown how little she knows about the franchise, including who is in it. As it turns out, she didn’t know the glue that keeps the Marvel films interconnected, Nicholas J. Fury, is played by none other Samuel L. Jackson. In a recent interview with Empire, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige shared the endearing story of her being confused as to why Jackson was invited to the epic funeral scene in Avengers: Endgame.
“Tom Holland [was] coming up to me, saying, ‘Is that Michelle Pfeiffer? What is happening?’. Gwyneth Paltrow [was] asking why Sam Jackson was there, and the other actors [were] jumping in saying, ‘What are you talking about? He’s Nick Fury! You’ve been in movies with him.’ But it was really something special.”
The Oscar winning actress has been featured in a total of seven MCU films as Tony Stark’s assistant turned wife. In June, the notoriously honest Paltrow admitted she didn’t realize it had even been so many. During an exchange with Jon Favreau on his Netflix series The Chef Show, Paltrow refused to believe she had been in Spider-Man: Homecoming. “No… I was in Avengers,” she insisted. It wasn’t until Favreau described the scene in which we learn Tony is going to propose that Paltrow exclaimed, “That was Spider-Man! Oh, my god!” It doesn’t stop there. Bucky Barnes/The Winter Soldier actor Sebastian Stan claims he has been introduced to her on three different occasions. She was even filmed asking her publicist who the Captain America star was.
Marvel Studios is notoriously secretive about their films. So much so, that it’s entirely believable that tertiary actors may not even know which ones they are filming for. In her first scene as Carol Danvers, Captain Marvel star Brie Larson was told to glance around an empty room and say, “Where’s Fury?” to a green screen. She wasn’t told who would be digitally placed there in post production or what the plot was for the end credits scene. Similar to Larson, Paltrow has bounced around in the MCU, sometimes appearing in as few as one scene in the entire film. So, we might have to forgive her this. At least she’s not accidentally filming during the premiere like Ruffalo if she doesn’t go, right?
Unfortunately, it’s unlikely that Pepper Potts will make an appearance in one of the MCU’s Phase 4 projects after the death of her husband, but Paltrow will return in the upcoming anthology series The Politician from Ryan Murphy.
Related: Why Adam Warlock Was a No Show in Avengers: Endgame
Avengers: Endgame stars Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man), Chris Evans (Captain America), Josh Brolin (Thanos), Scarlett Johansson (Black Widow), Chris Hemsworth (Thor), Jeremy Renner (Hawkeye), Brie Larson (Captain Marvel), Danai Gurira (Okoye), Paul Rudd (Ant-Man), Karen Gillan (Nebula), Mark Ruffalo (Hulk), Don Cheadle (War Machine), Tessa Thompson (Valkyrie), and Bradley Cooper (Rocket Raccoon). It is available for home-viewing on digital, and will be released on DVD and Blu-ray on August 13th. This story was previously reported on by Comic Book
