Back in July when Marvel unveiled most of the films and TV series that will be included in MCU Phase 4, we told you that there won’t be any Avengers, Guardians, or Spider-Man films in the next two years. It turns out that we were wrong, and last week’s new Sony-Disney deal helped clear things up. Spider-Man 3 is going to launch in 2021 as the penultimate film in Phase 4, just before Thor 4. The next Guardians movie, meanwhile, can’t happen before James Gunn finishes his Suicide Squad movie.
As for Avengers 5, it’s bound to arrive at some point in the more distant future, but maybe as soon as Phase 5 as opposed to Phase 6. That’s because the Avengers franchise is such a huge success that Marvel simply has to run another sequel that will surely make billions of dollars at the box office. But once Avengers 5 rolls around, we may have a totally different team of heroes — and not all the heroes who are about to be introduced in Phase 4 will become Avengers.
As it stands now, we have no idea what Avengers 5 will have to offer other than a hot rumor that says we’re looking at a crossover of the Avengers vs. X-Men variety. We do know, however, that the Avengers roster needs to be refreshed, hence the need for more MCU films and TV series before we can get to the fifth Avengers movie.
Iron Man and Black Widow are dead and the original Captain America has retired, having passed his shield to Falcon. Hawkeye is also expected to retire soon and he’ll train Kate Bishop to replace him, then Thor could end up passing the hammer to Jane Foster. Spider-Man’s future is uncertain as well, as Sony wants to use the hero in its own Spider-verse universe.
Phase 4 will bring us several new heroes, starting with Yelena Belova, several Eternals and the Black Knight (The Eternals), Shang-Chi (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings), Kate Bishop (Hawkeye), “Jane Thor” (Thor: Love and Thunder), Ms. Marvel (Ms. Marvel), She-Hulk (She-Hulk), and Moon Knight (Moon Knight).
After that, Marvel will introduce Blade, the Fantastic Four, and the mutants in Phase 5, which is also when Guardians 3 is supposed to arrive. We have no release dates for these films, but we do have confirmation from Marvel that these projects are in the works. And let’s not forget that Deadpool is also coming to the MCU. That means we’re about to get a bunch of additional new heroes on top of everything new in Phase 4.
In other words, cramming all these superheroes in the same Avengers 5 film, as exciting as it may sound, may be a challenging task. Endgame, as it is, has so many superheroes in it that it must have been hell to dream up enough scenes to give all of them enough screen time. So we definitely shouldn’t expect all the new superheroes to just be knighted Avengers and face whatever evil might come their way.
Thankfully, a Redditor has imagined exactly the kind of teams that Marvel might assemble based on what the comics have to offer. In a lengthy post, available at the end of this blog, jackramz explains all the possible teams we might see down the road. We’ll briefly list all the potential groups and let you read the explanation in the Redditor’s own words:
- Guardians lose Star-Lord, Gamora, and Drax. Rocket, Lylla, Mantis, Nebula, Adam Warlock, Beta Rey Bill, and maybe an Eternal or two will form the new team.
- The Ultimates: Captain Marvel is the leader of Cosmic Avengers (Miss America, Nova, Spectrum, an Eternal or two), with Nick Fury running SWORD.
- Midnight Sons: Doctor Strange, Blade, Ghost Rider, Moon Knight, Scarlet Witch, Punisher
- Defenders: Dare Devil, Iron Fist, Luke Cage, Punisher, Jessica Jones
- Fantastic 4: Intertwined with Ultimates and Avengers, as well as Ant-Man, Wasp, and Ghost
- X-Men
- Thunderbolts/Dark Avengers: Marvel’s Suicide Squad could include Red Hulk, Red Guardian, Yelena Belova, Punisher, Zemo, Winter Soldier, Norman Osborn, Elektra, Deadpool, and Abomination
- Avengers: Spider-Man, Falcon (New Captain America), Ant-Man, Wasp, Doctor Strange, Scarlet Witch, Captain Marvel, Jane Foster Thor, Thor, Winter Soldier, Black Panther, Valkyrie, Kate Bishop, Black Knight, Sersi (Eternal). Other members might include Dare Devil, She-Hulk, Ms. Marvel, Cassie Lang (instead of Ant-Man), and Ghost. X-Men, Fantastic Four, and the Silver Surfer might also be included in these movies. I would also add War Machine to this list, as he’s still alive and well.
This is all obviously speculation, and we’ll probably discover the actual Avengers 5 roster only after the lights go out and the film starts playing in theaters several years from now. Then again, MCU speculation is always fun. By the way, the list above proves once again how amazingly vast the MCU can be, and why Marvel would have no problem dumping Spider-Man if it had to.
Check out the full Reddit post below:
MCU Future is all about different and unique teams of heroes. from FanTheories
