Robert Downey Jr., Jeremy Renner and the Pay Gap Among Returning Avengers

In May 2025, our conversation about the next Avengers movie turned from who might stand with Doctor Doom to who gets paid what. The main argument was that Marvel believed it needed Robert Downey Jr. to wrap up the saga and paid him accordingly. Other returning stars, including Scarlett Johansson and Jeremy Renner, may not have had the same leverage.

Downey, who started the MCU as Iron Man, was coming back as the main villain. That return framed everything else that was discussed about salaries, fame and which actors the studio considered essential.

A Captain America variant was the pick for Doctor Doom's team

The first question was who would be on Doom's team. Chris's answer was Captain America, and there was agreement that a Captain America variant made sense. Hydra Cap came up as an option. There was some doubt about him, though, because Hydra Cap reads as a villain in his own right.

The Captain America idea tied into casting news at the time. One of the trades had reported that Chris Evans was returning, and one of the trades had also reported Hayley Atwell. Whether Scarlett Johansson had been confirmed was less clear. She was definitely talked about, but she had been one of the actors who adamantly said she was not coming back. The response to that was skeptical, since the Avengers all have matching tattoos from their time on the team, and it seemed unlikely that everyone else would show up while she stayed away.

Jeremy Renner's pay dispute over Hawkeye season 2

Hawkeye came up next. The expectation was that he would be back, even though Jeremy Renner was said to be having problems with the studio at the time, because it wanted to cut his pay in half for Hawkeye season 2. Even so, the view was that he would not miss the chance to "go wrap up the big Kumbaya Fest." It's an Avengers movie, and since the cast is so huge, he would expect not to be paid much.

That led to the pay gap itself. Imagine being offered something like 2 million dollars while Downey makes over 100 million. Downey was the staple of the MCU and the one who started it, but the counterpoint was that Renner has the tattoo too and put his time in. In the end, the feeling was that being part of the team matters and doesn't matter at the same time, because what really counts is your role and your fame.

Chris on Scarlett Johansson: wanted, but not necessary

Chris made it clear he loves Johansson and hopes she comes back. His point was that if she decides not to, the movie will be fine. He wants her to appear as Black Widow, but in his view it isn't necessary.

The reasoning went to how Marvel thinks. Whether the studio is right or wrong is irrelevant: in its mind, it needed Downey to wrap this up, so it paid him. It doesn't need Johansson in the same way, and it has what it needs at this point. So if she doesn't want to do it, the reality is that she is the one who needs the opportunity. There was even a suggestion that she might hop in for a minute just to be there, which is not a hundred million dollar role.

Bill Gates, the Friends cast and how different money looks at the top

The discussion drifted into how unreal money becomes at that level. A recalled statistic, heard back in about 10th grade and admitted to be of uncertain truth, held that Bill Gates loses money in the time it takes him to bend down and pick up a quarter. The guess was that he probably makes something like 1,000 dollars a second.

The same applies to actors in the franchise that makes the most money on the planet. Many of them probably have royalties and residuals, and the claim offered was that the cast of Friends is still making a million dollars a month. Whether Downey needs 100 million dollars was another question, with the observation that a million would be enough to make things work for life.

The Michael Jordan comparison and why Downey elevates Marvel

A point raised was that not everyone can be a Jordan. The Pippen and the Steve Kerr are needed too. That was accepted as true, but with a twist. Once Jordan left the Bulls, other teams paid his supporting players absurd amounts of money because they had played with him. Without Jordan, none of them performed the same, because his intensity had elevated them.

Downey was cast as that same kind of elevation. Marvel thought it was necessary to bring him back in a way it didn't for others. It was stressed that this was not a knock on Johansson, just a read on the mentality Marvel has.

Messi, MLS and Apple TV show who really gets paid

The other sports example was Lionel Messi. Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo were described as arguably the most famous people alive, maybe not in the United States but on the planet. When Messi came to play in MLS for Miami, the claim was that every other team in the league offered to help pay his salary because of how popular he would make American soccer. Apple TV, which has the MLS rights, also paid part of his salary.

That prompted pushback. If teams pay because their value goes up, shouldn't Downey's presence mean more money for everyone, Renner included? The answer was no. The point was only about the people at the top, not the player sitting on the bench. The owners are the ones getting paid: executives like Bob Iger, the people actually making the money whom most of us will never meet. There is a veil that makes it seem otherwise, but whenever people wonder why Disney did something, "the answer is always money."