The only thing missing from the MCU Phase 4 at this point is an Avengers 5 movie. That’s the kind of Avengers sequel everybody wants following the massive success of Endgame and the MCU as a whole. Of course, there’s a very good reason for that. The MCU is in a reconstruction phase after the monumental events in Endgame, and we’ve just begun to explore that world with WandaVision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. We’ll see plenty of new heroes and villains introduced in upcoming films and TV shows, and we’ll get to explore some of these characters better than ever before via the Disney+ shows.
Additional teams of gifted beings are about to be introduced. The Eternals are coming, and Marvel’s Fantastic Four reboot was confirmed. The X-Men will also drop in the MCU, likely rebranded simply as mutants, and movies like Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness will deliver additional epic crossovers. All of that needs to happen before the new Avengers team is fully formed. Now, a new leak teases that we might get all sorts of Avengers content covering team-ups that haven’t been explored so far, and they won’t necessarily qualify as actual Avengers movies. Mind you, some potential spoilers follow below.
The first two TV shows of Phase 4 have already introduced three new Avengers that fans of the comics will have spotted. WandaVision brought us Billy (Wiccan) and Tommy (Speed), and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier quietly introduced Elijah Bradley (Patriot). All three of them are members of the Young Avengers in the comics.
Additionally, we know that future MCU attractions will introduce other Young Avengers. Marvel already confirmed Kate Bishop as Hawkeye, Kamala Khan as Ms. Marvel, Riri Williams as Ironheart, and America Chavez as Miss America in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Also, Cassie Lang already appeared in the Ant-Man movies and Endgame. The character is also going to be featured as Stature in Ant-Man: Quantumania.
All these details have not escaped fans of the comics, so Kevin Feige had to field Young Avengers questions a few days ago. While he offered a diplomatic response to Entertainment Weekly, he seemed to acknowledge that Marvel is planting the seeds for potential adventures that could include the Young Avengers:
As a comic fan, anything in the comics is always our inspiration and our guide point. How those things come together and in what shape, it’s always subverting expectations, it’s always half the fun as meeting them. But, yes, you can certainly see that Phase 4 is introducing all sorts of new types of characters with the potential being endless. Now, all of us at Marvel Studios feel like Nick Fury at the end of Iron Man 1, as new actors and new performers come in and we tell them they’re part of a bigger universe. They just now have to do the work required to build their audience. I’m happy to say everybody that’s here, certainly where I’m sitting now, is doing amazing work and [I] can’t wait to show them the world.
That’s probably the best sort of confirmation we’ll get from Marvel until the studio is ready to make official announcements. But even so, there’s no indication how soon movies and shows featuring the Young Avengers might start rolling out.
A leaker who goes by the name Main Middle Man on Twitter said earlier this week that Young Avengers might be just one of the Avengers derivatives that Marvel is developing. West Coast Avengers and Dark Avengers are also reportedly in the works:
The first step straight into the West Coast Avengers project will be Armor Wars. White Vision may return.
— Main Middle Man (@mainmiddleman) March 30, 2021
Apparently, Armor Wars will lead to West Coast Avengers, and that’s where White Vision might return.
As with previous leaks, there’s no way to verify any of this and the leaker’s track record isn’t perfect. But Marvel is certainly laying groundwork that would allow it to move forward with a bunch of stories even before getting to a place where a proper Avengers 5 sequel can be released.
