Disappointing MCU Exit? Cobie Smulders Wants Back In—Fast

The MCU has been running long enough to have senior superlatives. Eighteen years after Iron Man kicked this all off, we are deep into the era where characters die, resurrect, soft-reboot, and sometimes just quietly disappear. Which brings us to Maria Hill. Secret Invasion took her off the board in 2023 — and Cobie Smulders sounds plenty open to coming back anyway.

Maria Hill is down, not necessarily out

Secret Invasion was pitched as a paranoia thriller with Skrulls quietly replacing people in positions of power. The show finally arrived in 2023 and got dinged harder than any MCU series so far, sitting at 53% on Rotten Tomatoes. It also made the controversial call to kill Maria Hill, a character Smulders has been playing since her debut in 2012's The Avengers.

Asked how she would feel about returning — or watching someone else take over the role — Smulders did not mince words:

'I mean, I would love to play Maria Hill more... The people at Marvel are very smart. They are very kind, and I would play her again in a heartbeat. But if another Maria, a younger Maria Hill came around, go ahead. I would be excited for her.'

Meanwhile, over on Apple TV+

Smulders is currently popping up on Shrinking, sharing the screen with her old How I Met Your Mother partner Jason Segel and Harrison Ford. Despite both being MCU-adjacent, she says their chats stayed elsewhere.

'Marvel did not come up. We talked about a lot of things, but Marvel was not on the list.'

As for a Maria Hill and Red Hulk team-up? Smulders laughed that one off with a wink:

'That is the spin-off. That is the spin-off everybody has been looking for, pretty sure.'

The comeback door stays wide open

Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame wrapped arcs for a lot of the original crew, some with clean exits and others with graves. Then the Multiverse showed up and made anything possible again. Case in point: the next big team-up, Avengers: Doomsday, is set to stack the roster with familiar faces in unexpected ways. Through that lens, a Maria Hill return — whether as a variant or in a fresh role — feels very much in play. And if timing is a concern, remember Liv Tyler just did a 17-year boomerang between MCU appearances.

• Robert Downey Jr. is coming back to Marvel to play Victor Von Doom in Avengers: Doomsday.
• Chris Evans is also returning for the team-up.
• Samuel L. Jackson's last on-screen turn as Nick Fury was Secret Invasion; he remains unconfirmed for Doomsday.
• Liv Tyler went 17 years between MCU gigs, which keeps the door open for long-haul returns.

Where to see Smulders right now

If you are missing Maria Hill, Smulders is guest-starring on Shrinking, with new episodes dropping Wednesdays on Apple TV+.