In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Avengers Tower, formerly Stark Tower, was sold in 2017 as part of the plot of Spider-Man: Homecoming, as the Avengers completed their move to the new facility in upstate New York. Since then, we have visited present New York City in Thor: Ragnarok, Avengers: Infinity War, Spider-Man: Far From Home, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Hawkeye, Spider-Man: No Way Home, and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. That’s 8 projects in which the buyer revealed have been purposely left out. Here, we will discuss the three most likely suitors for the building, and the ramifications they could have on the MCU.
3. Reed Richards (Earth-616) – The Baxter Building
With a new Fantastic Four film around the corner, estimated for a 2024 release, a new base of operations for Marvel’s first family seems fitting. The Baxter Building, owned by Mr. Fantastic himself, is located in Manhattan, New York City in the comics and the tech-based foundations would seem like a smooth and easily explainable transition for Tony Stark to hand the keys over to a fellow genius in Reed Richards.
The buyer’s long-awaited reveal would probably be the best fan service if the Avengers handed it over to the Fantastic Four. However, despite the Baxter Foundation’s name drop in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Stephen Strange’s brief comment in the Illuminati council room to Earth-838’s Reed Richards makes the possibility of the Baxter Foundation buying Avengers Tower more unlikely than likely. Strange said ‘didn’t you guys chart in the sixties’.
If the team existed in the sixties, parallel to the comics, it’s likely the team got stranded in the quantum realm or some form of the microverse, to explain the absence of them in the MCU timeline (and how they may look like they have not aged since the 1960s). Their absence in the MCU in 2017 means it is highly unlikely that Reed bought the tower.
2. Norman Osborn (Earth-616) – Oscorp
After Spider-Man: No Way Home, the potential of a Norman Osborn existing in the main MCU timeline is up in the air. Whilst many fans believe that we will see Harry and Norman Osborn in the next MCU Spider-Man trilogy, Willem Dafoe’s Norman Osborn said to Aunt May in the F.E.A.S.T. center that ‘Oscorp doesn’t exist’ in the MCU. A Norman Osborn presence in the MCU could cause Tom Holland’s Peter Parker some stress as he has seen the damage a Norman variant is capable of.
In the MCU, it is more likely that a 616 Norman Osborn could become a very different version of the character to avoid the same plot beats as Sam Raimi’s Green Goblin. If Norman went down a different path, he could take the mantle of Iron Patriot, buy Stark Tower, and form the Dark Avengers, who have been speculated to be introduced to the MCU sometime in the future (although a project is not confirmed as of today).
A new Oscorp could be on its way to set up the team that could either help or antagonize the Avengers and Spider-Man. Either way, although an outside choice given the namedrop in Spider-Man: No Way Home, an Oscorp in the MCU would open near limitless creative possibilities for the MCU’s Avengers and Spider-Man.
1. Wilson Fisk – Fisk Tower
Wilson Fisk, an iconic Daredevil and Spider-Man villain, has become central to recent transmedia storytelling. Appearing in Hawkeye last December, Netflix’s Daredevil and given the role as the main villain of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, his tower was a key location in Spider-Man PS4. As Marvel fans continue to warm to the Kingpin, it seems that Wilson Fisk buying Stark Tower in 2017 could be the most likely outcome.
His threat was established in Hawkeye, and Vincent D’Onofrio is expected to reprise his role as the MCU Kingpin in Disney Plus series, Echo, sometime in 2023. Despite him only making his debut in the MCU timeline in 2024, 7 years after the tower was sold, his reason for working with Eleanor Bishop in the series could be a process in trying to reclaim his ‘kingpin of crime’ of the throne which he could acquire from Stark.
Fisk must have earned his title as Kingpin at the peak of his wealthy criminal operations, which could have been decimated structurally as a result of ‘the blip’, which occurred between 2017 and when we see him in 2024. His character seems to have a huge future as the ‘big bad’ of the MCU street-level franchises, as we approach Echo, a new Spider-Man trilogy, and an MCU Daredevil project.
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