My main issue with Sony’s Spider-Man movies that are part of the MCU is that they’re, well, made by Sony. Marvel does have a say in what happens in them, but Sony still makes strange decisions that we choose to ignore so they don’t ruin the rest of the MCU.
One of these choices for Spider-Man: Homecoming is still unresolved to this day. It’s not a big deal, but it is a cliffhanger that we’ve always expected the other movies to pay off down the road. We learned in the first MCU Spider-Man movie that Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) sold Avengers Tower (formerly Stark Tower), but it hasn’t been mentioned since.
Thankfully, according to a well-known Marvel insider, we’ll soon learn the answer. Homecoming premiered in 2017, so I won’t warn you about spoilers for that Spider-Man movie. But spoilers will follow below for one of the upcoming MCU projects.
The Avengers Tower mystery in Spider-Man: Homecoming
Homecoming needed Tony Stark to sell the iconic Avengers Tower. Without that decision, you wouldn’t have the big fight in the film’s final act, where Peter Parker (Tom Holland) gets to save the day and make his case that he is a strong candidate for the Avengers.
Stark did indeed move the Avengers headquarters to Upstate New York, a move that was for the best. This is where the big fight against Thanos (Josh Brolin) takes place in Endgame. You wouldn’t have wanted that to happen in the middle of New York City.
Still, we’ve been wondering since Homecoming who purchased the Avengers building. The mysterious Benefactor from Ant-Man 2 was a candidate. That’s another unresolved cliffhanger, by the way, one that has nothing to do with MCU Spider-Man movies.
Not addressing who bought the Avengers Tower all these years is kind of a plot hole. That’s not a cheap property. And we’d certainly want to know what sort of billionaire, and potential Tony Stark rival, could have gotten their hands on it. Could it still be the mysterious Benefactor?
Ironheart to provide an exciting answer
We saw Ironheart (Dominique Thorne) in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, but that’s not the character’s origin story. The Iron Man replacement got a Disney Plus TV show announcement well before the Black Panther 2 release.
Marvel planned to stream Ironheart on Disney Plus this fall, but that won’t happen. We’ll probably have to wait until next year to see if this new report about the Avengers Tower in Spider-Man is accurate.
Alex Perez, an accurate Marvel insider, revealed the purported identity of the person who bought the Avengers Tower. Writing for The Cosmic Circus, he said that Tony Stark made a deal with the devil.
It’s unclear whether Stark knew he was selling the Avengers Tower to Mephisto. But that’s the Marvel villain who purchased the property. According to the report, Mephisto is fascinated with technology. That claim makes me think he could be the Benefactor from Ant-Man 2, although that’s only my guess.
Also, I’ll add that I hope Tony Stark somehow knew he was dealing with the devil. It’s something Stark would probably do.
Mephisto in Ironheart
It’s unclear why Mephisto wants technology, but the upcoming Disney Plus TV show should be about magic and technology.
Perez further says that Mephisto might have a big role in the TV show. And that Mephisto will mostly show up as a “humanoid, business attire individual” rather than their demonic appearance from the comics.
That demonic variant will show up in the TV show. But Mephisto will have to blend in, which explains his human persona. Also, it’s much cheaper to have Mephisto appear in human form for most of the time.
“Our sources have cited Fox’s and Netflix’s take of Tom Ellis’ Lucifer as an inspiration for the version of Mephisto,” Perez says. And that’s an exciting prospect.
Add to that previous rumors that Sacha Baron Cohen will play Mephisto, and I’m already excited about IronHeart. Having this actor in costume or motion capture as the devil is one thing. And quite another to see Sacha Baron Cohen playing Mephisto as a human. At this point, the Avengers Tower mystery from Spider-Man doesn’t even matter that much.
Then again, I should temper my expectations. These are just rumors, and Marvel won’t confirm anything. What I’m looking forward to from Marvel is an updated release date estimate for Ironheart at Comic-Con 2023.
