Original 2012 'Avengers' Movie Has Been Taken Down Following Robert Downey Jr.'s Bombshell Recasting

After last week’s bombshell recasting, Marvel Studios’s original Avengers movie, The Avengers (2012), has been taken down.

The Avengers during the Battle of New York — Credit: Marvel Studios

The Avengers, released in 2012, is a landmark superhero film produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. Directed by Joss Whedon, it is the sixth film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the culmination of the MCU’s Phase One series.

It was the first time that audiences saw the main cast of characters come together, with Tony Stark/Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Steve Rogers/Captain America (Chris Evans), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Bruce Banner/The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), and Clint Barton/Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) joining forces to take on Loki (Tom Hiddleston).

The Avengers (Iron Man, Hulk, Captain America, Hawkeye, Thor, Black Widow) — Credit: Marvel Studios

The Avengers was both a critical and commercial success, praised for its action sequences, visual effects, and character dynamics. The film grossed $1.5 billion worldwide, making it one of the highest-grossing films at the time.

Critics lauded the now-disgraced Joss Whedon‘s direction and screenplay for balancing the ensemble cast and providing each character with significant screen time and development. The movie set a new standard for superhero films and demonstrated the viability of a shared cinematic universe, influencing other studios to create interconnected movie franchises.

A scene from a superhero movie showing a determined character in a blue helmet with an "A" on it, surrounded by other heroes. The background features a green-skinned figure, a long-haired warrior with a beard, and additional characters in various costumes. — Credit: Marvel Studios

The film’s success led to sequels, including Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), and Avengers: Endgame (2019), which concluded the main storyline of the first three MCU phases.

But as news circulates about the future of the Avengers franchise and the greater MCU, The Avengers has been pushed out of the top ten highest-grossing movies of all time, thanks to a group of loveable emotions.

Loki (Tom Hiddleston) grinning in The Avengers — Credit: Marvel Studios

The Avengers Knocked Out

“The joyride continues for Disney and Pixar’s Inside Out 2 which has entered the list of Top 10 highest-grossing movies ever worldwide,” writes Variety. “Now thisclose to $1.524B global ($1,523.9M) through Wednesday, the sequel has cruised past Furious 7 ($1.515B) and The Avengers ($1.521B) to land the No. 10 spot on the all-time chart.

An image shows animated characters from the movie "Inside Out." The characters, including Joy, Sadness, Fear, Disgust, and Anger, display a range of emotions. Joy is in the center, smiling, surrounded by the other characters who exhibit their respective emotions. — Credit: Pixar

Inside Out 2 (2024) came as The Walt Disney Company struggled to make a dent in the global box office after a string of misfires. After Lightyear (2022) and Strange World (2022) two years ago and the Mouse House’s centennial movie Wish (2023) failed to deliver expectations, eyes were firmly set on the return of Joy, Sadness, and the rest of Riley’s emotions.

It may have been a while since audiences last saw Joy (Amy Poehler), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Anger (Lewis Black), Disgust (Liza Lapira), and Fear (Tony Hale), but they still turned out for the sequel. Announced two years ago at D23 Expo 2022, Inside Out 2 debuted in late June and delivered the biggest opening of the year, with $295 million globally.

An image shows animated characters Joy, Sadness, Fear, Anger, and Disgust from the movie "Inside Out" trapped in a glass jar. Joy looks up smiling while the other characters display various emotions. The jar is dimly lit from above, creating a spotlight effect. — Credit: Pixar

With the arrival of new emotions, including buzzy stars Maya Hawke (Stranger Things) and Ayo Edebiri (The Bear) as Anxiety and Envy, respectively, Inside Out 2 has dominated the summer box office, and its now $1.5 billion haul is truly a spectacular performance.

It had already usurped Frozen II (2019) to become Disney’s most lucrative animated movie (if you don’t class the live-action remake of The Lion King from 2019), and its arrival in the top ten highest-grossing films of all time proves not even the Avengers are safe from the voices in Riley’s head.

Riley from 'Inside Out 2' with blonde hair, braces, and blue eyes, wearing a blue hoodie, holds a lacrosse stick while smiling excitedly. Behind them, another character is seen handling sports equipment, indicating a sporty environment that captures the essence of teenagehood. — Credit: Pixar

The news of The Avengers being overtaken comes shortly after Kevin Feige’s superhero studio drastically changed the future of its blockbuster franchise.

The MCU’s Risky Future

At San Diego Comic-Con 2024, Marvel Studios returned to Hall H after being absent last year. All eyes were on what Feige would reveal about the turbulent franchise, which suffered its worst-performing year to date in 2023. Both Peyton Reed’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023) and Nia DaCosta’s The Marvels (2023) floundered at the box office.

Over the same weekend as San Diego Comic-Con, though, Deadpool & Wolverine (2024) exploded into theaters and became the biggest opening of the year, dethroning Inside Out 2 from the top spot. That said, the Merc with a Mouth and his X-Men co-star cannot save the MCU alone.

L to R: Logan/Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) and Wade Wilson/Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) getting ready for battle — Credit: Marvel Studios

Shortly after confirming that Anthony Russo and Joe Russo (the Russo Brothers) would return to helm the fifth and sixth Avengers movies and the announcement that Avengers 5 (formerly Avengers: The Kang Dynasty) would now be referred to as Avengers: Doomsday, the studio revealed the recasting of Robert Downey Jr.

The Oscar-winning star will no longer play Iron Man in the MCU but will instead take on the role of Doctor Doom moving forward—an announcement that not everyone has welcomed with open arms.

Credit: Marvel Studios

It will be interesting to see how Avengers: Doomsday (2026) and Avengers: Secret Wars (2027) fare when they hit movie theaters in the coming years and whether they can replicate the immense box office success of the previous Avengers movies.

For Inside Out, the future is uncertain. A third movie is likely, considering the franchise’s success thus far, but whether Disney and Pixar will want to return to another sequel or create something new will be the discussion point.

An animated man with a mustache, looking like he stepped out of a Pixar movie, carries a blonde toddler on his shoulders. The toddler excitedly holds an ice cream cone with a smudged face. A woman with glasses, smiling, stands beside them. They appear to be in a playground with green equipment and trees in the background. — Credit: Pixar

A Little More on Inside Out‘s Success

Inside Out, released in 2015, is an animated feature film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. Directed by Pete Docter and co-directed by Ronnie del Carmen, the film is known for its unique and creative exploration of human emotions.

At the box office, Inside Out was a significant success. It grossed over $857 million worldwide, making it one of the highest-grossing films of 2015. In North America, it earned approximately $356 million, bringing in an additional $501 million internationally. The film’s financial performance reaffirmed Pixar’s reputation for creating high-quality, commercially successful animated features.

Did you expect Inside Out 2 to be more popular than The Avengers? Let Inside the Magic know in the comments down below!