‘Avengers 4’: John Slattery Reportedly Returning as Howard Stark

After the events of Avengers: Infinity War, many Marvel Studios fans are eager to learn just how Earth’s Mightiest Heroes will bounce back from their fight with Thanos.

While fan theories and set photos have people making guesswork over the plot of Avengers 4, the evidence available seems to hint that time travel will play a major part in the film. And this might allow the return of one popular character, according to a new report.

That Hashtag Show recently reported that Avengers 4 scenes were shot with John Slattery, the actor who plays the older Howard Stark in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Slattery is reportedly reprising his role from Iron Man 2, Ant-Man, and most recently in Captain America: Civil War.

Filming with Slattery apparently took place during principal photography. Though the reshoots have recently begun with the main cast, it remains to be seen if he’ll return to the set. Of course, given how the film won’t be released until May of next year, there’s also a chance that his scenes could be cut out entirely.

With new information finally being revealed on Captain Marvel and reshoots on Avengers 4 currently underway, the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is finally starting to come into focus. But nothing has been finalized yet, as evidenced by Mark Ruffalo’s recent comments about the new round of filming.

“Well we’re doing reshoots starting in September,” Ruffalo said on the Marvelists podcast. “And then we’ll go back into the international tour, we’ll go on tour. Then you guys will get the second installment. Which we don’t even know what it’s gonna be yet. We’re not just doing reshoots, we’re going to finish the movie, which we really didn’t get to finish totally when we left it last year.”

Ruffalo couldn’t even be counted on for his routine spoiler, as the actor wasn’t sure what was being planned by the filmmakers behind the scene.

“I don’t even know that they really know exactly,” Ruffalo said. “Some of it is happening while we’re there. It’s pretty amazing. And we’ll shoot some stuff and a few days later come back and reshoot it cause we wanna take it in another direction. It’s a very living organism, even as we approach it being a locked picture, we’re still working on it.”

It sounds like Avengers 4 is still up in the air. Hopefully we learn more about the movie very soon — heck, even the movie’s actual title would tide us over for a month or two.

Avengers 4 will premiere in theaters on May 3, 2019.