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While Marvel fans continue to celebrate and dissect the Avengers: Infinity War trailer, the cast and crew are already hard at work on Avengers 4. That includes Gwyneth Paltrow, who played Pepper Potts in the Iron Man movies and, more recently, had a short cameo in Spider-Man: Homecoming. Paltrow posted a behind-the-scenes pic on Instagram of her getting in a quick break between scenes, and one curious detail might end up being a spoiler for the film.
So before we press on, here's that Infinity War trailer again. Watch it a second (or third, or fourth) time if you like, but scroll no further if you wish to avoid even the barest hint of possible spoilers.
Alright, are we safe? Here's a screengrab from Paltrow's Instagram video:
The photo shows Paltrow getting a foot massage from a "Dr. Zhu" while she waits to go on set. The original video has since been removed or made private, but the most important detail is clearly evident: Paltrow is wearing a mocap suit. Pepper Potts is an ordinary person, and thus should have no need for such a suit (which is typically used for covering an actor with a digital costume - here's what Robert Downey Jr looks like before the Iron Man suit is edited in), so what's the deal? For that, we look to the comics.
In the Invincible Iron Man "World’s Most Wanted" story arc, Potts discovers a suit of armor designed for her, created by Tony Stark. Donning this special suit, she adopts the alias "Rescue," and begins moonlighting as a hero. She's helped Iron Man and War Machine in several fights, and briefly teamed up with Ironheart, Stark's current protege in the comics.
Save for a brief scene in Iron Man 3 where Stark put Potts into an Iron Man suit to protect her during an attack, the character hasn't been seen in anything approaching her Rescue armor. Could Avengers 4 change that? It's not clear what's going on just yet, but the fact that the video is now unavailable suggests Paltrow may have shown too much.
Need to get caught up on everything that's happened in the MCU over the past decade? Check out our guide to the Infinity Stones for a good starting point.
