Here's When Every Marvel Actor's Contract Ends (After Avengers: Endgame)
So now that Endgame has come and gone a lot of us have been left to wondering whether or not certain Marvel actors will be sticking around for any potential future films. That might not be the most accurate way to put it since contract deals can be proposed at any time, but you get the general idea. Endgame was an end, and now we’re unsure as to what some of our favorite actors are going to be doing, so of course, we decided to check.
Robert Downey Jr.
Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron is probably the best one we’re going to get this generation, but after eleven years it seems we're finally saying goodbye to the character. Robert isn’t under contract for any future films. There are rumors that he’ll be lending his voice to certain projects for Disney + but that’s about it.
Chris Evans
Like his partner in crime, RDJ, Chris isn’t currently penned down for any future appearances either. This isn’t surprising, though, considering Chris has been pretty outspoken about not wanting to do Captain America anymore, wanting to instead focus on his directing career. Still, it seems Endgame has given him a bit of a change of heart since he’s expressed a willingness to go along with whatever Marvel wants to do with the character.
Chris Hemsworth
Chris isn’t on contract for any future movies either, but unlike the other members of the original six his character seems to have already been set up for his next adventure with the Guardians of the Galaxy. Like Evans, Chris has also expressed his want to play Thor again, particularly if he’s taken in the same direction that Taika Waititi took him in. Apparently there are also talks of a Thor 4, so we’ll see.
Mark Ruffalo
Mark’s contract has him on call for six films, and so far he’s only completed four. He’s had multiple cameos, but cameos don’t count. This means that Mark and the Hulk will be showing up for at least two more Avengers films. We specify “Avengers films” because there’s absolutely no way in hell another solo Hulk movie is happening. Considering the Hulk hasn’t been the best treated character lately, we hope his future plotlines are little more fleshed out.
Scarlett Johansson
If you didn’t know already, Scarlett does in fact have another movie on her contract, and this ones a solo. We don’t know if she has any movies after that, though, since Scarlett herself is never really sure what form her contract has taken since it apparently changes frequently. Depending on this solo movie of hers goes she may change her contract again in order to play in a few more films.
Jeremy Renner
Jeremy is apparently supposed to return to playing Hawkeye in one of the upcoming Disney + programs. From the sounds of things he’ll be training Kate Bishop to take his place as the next Hawkeye. The standard contract for an MCU actor includes six movies anyway, and Jeremy’s only played in four (not including cameos). This puts him in the same spot as Mark, so maybe his Endgame retirement, wasn’t as finale as it seemed.
Don Cheadle
We don’t really see a need for Don to return at this point. As James Rhodes, he was Tony Stark’s wingman, and Tony Stark is currently very, very dead. Still, like RDJ, Don could be on call to lend his voice to War Machine in some future Disney + projects. But for now it doesn’t look like Disney has claimed him for anything on the movie side of things.
Anothey Mackie
Anothey Mackie definitely still has life left in the MCU. It doesn’t look like Disney has he scheduled for any movies as it stands, but he still owes them at least one more film appearance. Disney will definitely be using him for an upcoming Disney + show featuring Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Sebastian Stan will also be reprising his role, so Anthony will star in the show right next to him.
Elizabeth Olson
Elizabeth doesn't have any films on her contract at the moment, but her character, Wanda has a joint Disney + program coming up here soon with the Vision. So even if she won’t be appearing on the big screen in the foreseeable future, the small screen does indeed have some plans in store for her. No reason to think these plans won’t lead to the big screen.
Paul Bettany
Same deal with Paul as with Elizabeth Olson. There are currently no scheduled movies for him, but he does have an upcoming show on Disney + that he’ll be co-starring in with Elizabeth. Of course, he’ll be reprising his role as Vision. How the show is going to pull of bringing him back, however, we still have no official idea. Unofficially, however, we think Shuri’s going to have something to do with it.
Paul Rudd
Paul doesn’t have a movie scheduled for him at the moment, but it’s pretty obvious that he’ll be returning for an Ant-Man 3. He’s also described his deal as having signed up for quite a few movies, so it’s likely we’ll be seeing him even after Ant-Man 3 has concluded, which is to be expected, it would be weird weird if Ant-Man just up and suddenly vanished after his third movie, as no other hero has done so yet.
Evangeline Lilly
Like Paul, she’s not scheduled for any upcoming movies. But also like Paul it wouldn’t make any sense for her to be absent for absent for the third Ant-Man movie. Whether or not she appears for subsequent Avenegr’s films remains to be seen, though. Age of Ultron proved that side characters don’t always make it into the Avengers films, and it’s safe to say that Infinity War and Endgame were special occasions.
Chadwick Bosemen
Chadwick’s contract apparently only has five films on it. This means that at the most he’s played in two (Black Panther and Infinity War). He was in Endgame yes, but only as a cameo. He doesn't have anything currently scheduled, but if you think a Black Panther sequel isn’t going to grace theaters you haven’t been paying attention to what the current status quo of Marvel movies is because the first Black Panther broke all kinds of records.
Tom Holland
Tom is definitely in a six-movie deal. Aside from his cameos he’s definitely stared in at least two movies (Infinity War, and Homecoming). Far From Home should be his third film. It’s important to remember that MCU Spider-Man only exists because Marvel and Sony made a deal with one another, so once Tom’s contract runs out his continued life in the MCU will be debatable. Still, if they pulled off the deal once, there’s no reason why they wouldn’t be able to do it again.
Benedict Cumberbatch
As expected, Benedict has a six movie contract in place. After having appeared in Doctor Strange and Infinity War that should leave him with four other movies. Doctor Strange 2 is officially in development, so that’ll be his number three, considering how popular Infinity War made Doctor Strange (what with his “we’re in the endgame now” plan) it wouldn’t be surprising if he signed on for more movies later on down the line.
Brie Larson
Brie’s not very different from most other people on this list. She doesn’t have any new movies planned for her in the MCU, not officially anyway. The first Captain Marvel made a lot of money, and the character has had so much hyped thrown into her it would just be bad business practice to not expect set Brie up with a sequel.
Chris Pratt
During the first Guardians of the Galaxy, Pratt apparently claimed that he had signed up for three guardians movies and then a few others. Since then he’s played in two Guardians of the Galaxy and Infinity War, and now Guardians of the Galaxy 3 is set to be in development soon, probably after Suicide Squad 2 finishes considering Gunn was fired from Guardians and then then rehired after signing up Suicde Squad 2.
Zoe Saldana
Gamura is sort of back, and sort of not. She’s around enough that Zoe is still needed to play her character, but she didn’t survive her little accident in Infinity War. Zoe doesn’t have anything set up, currently, but it’s more than a sure bet that she’ll be in the third guardians film. They went through all the trouble to bring her character back in the way that they did, they may as well use her.
Dave Bautista
Like the rest of the guardians, Dave doesn’t have anything up and coming. But as we all know that Guardians 3 is sure to happen, it’s a pretty easy guess as to what movie Dave is going to be playing in next, especially since he was the most adamant about getting James Gunn back as a director of the project, saying in no other terms that he was done playing the role of Drax should James not make an appearance as director.
Bradley Cooper
We expect Bradley’s on a long contract for Rocket, but then again, it’s voicework. In reality they’ll probably just call him in whenever they need him. On the other hand, finding a voice for Rocket was apparently enough to make you want to pull your hair out, so maybe they do have ol Bradley on a tight leash. Either way, right along with the rest of the Guardians, it’s obvious that Bradley will return for a Guardians of the Galaxy 3. After that who knows what he’ll be doing.
Vin Deasel
Just like the other guardians Vin has nothing on his contract that’s scheduled. If we're being honest though, do they even need Vin at this point? You’d imagine that they would have just had him say “I am Groot,” in a number of different inflections when they first had him over for the original Guardians and then use the playback recording for subsequent movies. The man only has one line.
Pom Klementieff
This is Mantis’ actor in case that went over some of your heads. Like the rest of the Guardians she should be scheduled to make a Guardians of the Galaxy 3 appearance since she survived Endgame. Not much else to say about her in this situation, though, since she’s no different than the rest of the Guardian actors on this list, expect for maybe Vin Deasel, cause he’s just an enigma.
Karen Gillan
Karen plays Nebula, who happens to be James Gunn’s favorite character. Considering all of the development that Nebula’s gotten over the years, this has probably only increased. CIt’ll be interesting to see what James does with her character in Guardians of the Galaxy 3, especially since she’s now one of the good guys. It doesn’t look like there’s anyway of soft rebooting her like the character of this next actor either, so she’ll probably remain a good guy.
Tom Hiddleson
Tom has made a fantastic Loki, and despite the characters demise in Infinity War, he’ll be making a comeback. Loki has a show coming up here soon on Disney +. Tom will be reprising his role for it, so that’s something to look forward too.
Sebastion Stan
Anthony Mackie’s partner in crime for the upcoming Disney + show featuring the Winter Soldier and Captain Falcon. Sebastion will, of course, be retaking his role as the Winter Soldier in this show. There are currently no plans for him to appear in future movies.
Samuel L. Jackson
Sam’s upcoming movie is obviously Far From Home where he;ll be starring alongside Tom Holland. Sam’s pretty much stated that he’ll continue doing Marvel films until he tires of it, and it doesn’t look like that’s happening anytime soon considering how much fun it looked like he was having in Captain Marvel.
Cobie Smulders
Sam’s right hand woman in Mariah. Mariah’s been here since the first Avengers and doesn’t seem like she’s going anyway unless Nick’s going there too.
